Attentional bias for valenced stimuli as a function of personality in the dot-probe task

Extroversion (E) and neuroticism (N) are associated with positive and negative affect, respectively. This correspondence between each dimension of personality with each dimension of affect may reflect a common mechanism, such as attentional bias to emotional stimuli. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participants were engaged in an attentional task to identify brain regions that may be involved in attentional bias as a function of E or N. By adapting, for the first time, the dot-probe attentional task for use in the scanner, we discovered that activation in the fusiform, gyrus is significantly correlated with E. The greatest activation was observed in conditions in which an attentional probe was placed in a section of the visual field least likely to be attended to by highly extroverted individuals. This activation may reflect increased effort related to visual search, autonomic arousal, or detection of an unexpected occurrence.