Our brain is the most complex part of the body. It is complex beyond comprehension, so it is nearly impossible to understand the whole system and how it affects our psyche or builds our psychological makeup. There are more patterns of connection in your brain than there are subatomic particles in the universe. However, what is more valuable to know is what problem the brain is wrestling with. The brain primarily deals with the nature of reality. Reality has an infinite number of layers and too many interconnected causal links. In other words, there is far more to reality than you can see.
Despite the overwhelming complexity of reality, our brain doesn't succumb to chaos. Instead, it operates in an organized manner, simplifying reality to a manageable level. This automatic filtering of most of reality ensures that you're not overwhelmed by its complexity in your daily activities. It's like having a personal assistant who sorts through the clutter and presents you with the most important tasks, making your life easier and less chaotic.
Understanding the Big Five Personality Model and Its Alignment with the Brain
Personality encompasses the enduring traits and actions that shape an individual's distinct response to life. This includes core characteristics, interests, motivations, values, self-perception, skills, and emotional tendencies. Although various theories offer differing perspectives on the structure and evolution of personality, they all concur that it plays a crucial role in influencing behavior.
Human beings work in an evolved trait hierarchical structure, which is organized into three levels: mechanisms and processes, structures, and behavior markers. Below is a brief understanding of the Big Five models of personality and their traits.
The big five models can be segregated into the big two – Stability and plasticity.
Stable people are conscientious, high in stress tolerance/low in neuroticism, and high in agreeableness. Here, conscientiousness breaks down into industriousness and orderliness, neuroticism breaks down into volatility and withdrawal, and agreeableness breaks down into politeness and compassion.
The plasticity trait breaks down into extraversion (assertiveness and enthusiasm) and openness (creative dimension)
In the stability trait, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and agreeableness clump together because they are roughly linked with brain serotoninergic function. The plasticity trait, extraversion, and openness clump together because of dopaminergic function.
The dopamine function mediates exploratory behaviour and the face of the unknown, but it also mediates positive emotions. When you are motivated to move to the unknown, it is a positive emotion. Positive emotion is also associated with interaction in a social environment. When you are communicating in a social environment, it is an exploratory behaviour, which in turn creates positive emotions. More often, the circulatory overlaps in human beings, but singular traits dominate individuals.
What is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?
There is voluminous literature devoted to BPD, but we do not understand this trait very well. The typical BPD patients show impulsive behavior, and self-damaging acts, including suicidal behavior, inordinate anger and lability of mood. In some rare cases, the disorder can cause intense episodic dysphoria, anxiety and even depression. One of the common features of BPD is a characteristic tendency to overreact to various stimuli, especially within the interpersonal field. There are predominate three characteristics:
Tremendous impulsivity
Radical confusion of identity
The pattern of idealization of people with whom the person is afflicted with the disorder is associated.
In most cases, people who suffer from borderline personality disorder are pretty intelligent, and you can see how they squander their tremendous potential. They can analyze their problems but are not capable of implementing any solution.
One personality trait is conscientiousness, which involves planning, strategizing, and keeping things in order. However, the correlation between IQ and conscientiousness is zero. BPD can strategize but not implement. So, the intellect in these people is functional but not embodied in action.
There are not enough studies done on the developmental stages of children that can lead to BPD, but there are surprising similarities between temper tantrums of children of 2 years old and adults suffering from BPD. Most of the children grow out of temper tantrums by the time they are about 3 or 4 years old. You can see some terrible temper tantrums in BPD adults. It is assumed that people suffering from BPD were not properly socialized in their childhood. A large proportion of adult males who display anti-social behaviour are as aggressive as children as 2-year-olds. There is a small proportion of 2-year-olds who are aggressive, steal and bite. However, they become expected by the time they are 5 years old. Some small proportion remain antisocial, and they tend to turn into long-time offenders.
Some Neurophysiological Aspects of BPD
The impulsivity, intense anger, self-destructive behaviors, and tumultuous relationships that prompt us to label a patient as “borderline” share a commonality—their origins in a brain that responds too quickly, too intensely, and lacks adequate regulation from the neocortex’s “higher centers.” To put it more plainly, the “bottom-up” parts of the brain, where initial stimuli are processed, are inadequately restrained by the “top-down” neocortical regions, particularly the frontal lobe. The level of inhibitory control that these upper areas are meant to provide is significantly impaired and, in more severe cases, seems to be entirely ineffective. An apt analogy would be to envision the higher centres becoming abruptly disconnected as if they were taken "offline.”
These intertwined dysfunctions seem to contribute to the weakened prefrontal braking mechanism and the heightened activity of the amygdala (particularly in response to fear-provoking stimuli, perceived dangers, and similar triggers).
Can the Limbic System Cause Cognitive Disturbance?
It has frequently been asserted that lesions in the temporal lobe and limbic system do not result in cognitive impairments. However, this belief does not align with the evidence. Cognitive disturbances, while challenging to observe and characterize, are not detectable through standard psychometric or psychopathometric assessments. In cases of pseudo-psychopathic syndrome, these cognitive disturbances may take the form of specific incoherence. It is crucial to note that these cognitive issues are not always evident; they tend to be transient and can vary in intensity. Consequently, varying diagnoses and descriptions are often found in case records.
During a conversation, these patients often oscillate between different subjects. Initially, the listener may assume that the patient has introduced a new topic to explain something fresh and tries to keep up with their line of thought. However, the patient continually jumps from one topic to another. If the listener is sufficiently patient, they might observe the patient's behavior for an extended time without grasping the underlying purpose of their dialogue. With prior knowledge of the specific eccentricities of a particular patient, the listener may engage for a brief period before redirecting the conversation back to the initial topic.
Limbic System and Social Behavior
The limbic system has a complex structure, and the neural networks work with other parts of the brain structure to operate a variety of physiological and psychological functions, including anger, sexual drive, memory functions, motivations and others. All these are actively contributed to the social behavior of a person, so the limbic system plays a pivotal role in shaping social behavior of a person.
The interaction among the dorsal hippocampus, basolateral amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex is crucial for contextual fear conditioning. This process relies on a cohesive understanding of both the fear-provoking context and the associated emotional experience. Importantly, in a fearful scenario, the activation of the dorsal hippocampus operates independently of previously established fear conditioning.
Neural signals generated by stressful events stimulate the amygdala, which processes this information and activates the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus then sends sympathetic impulses to the adrenal gland, prompting the release of adrenaline into the bloodstream. This sequence of events initiates various autonomic responses that activate the fight-or-flight reaction.
Male sexual behavior is primarily regulated by the medial preoptic area within the hypothalamus. Gonadal hormones enhance the release of dopamine in this area by boosting the activity of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which collectively triggers different sexual behaviors. The increase in nitric oxide caused by NOS further promotes dopamine release.
Conclusion
I have endeavored to outline a sketchy portrayal of a specific personality pattern associated with disturbances in some areas of the limbic system. Recognizing such disturbances is quite difficult because various aspects of brain systems affect a person's psychology. There is also a lack of enough studies done in this field, and scientists are still working on the behavioral part of brains and how personalities can be affected by the limbic system.
Comments