中国科学院心理健康重点实验室知识库

Authenticity, as a positive trait, is confirmed to be beneficial for psychopathology prevention and human well-being. However, there is no investigation regarding the neuro-anatomical basis of trait authenticity and how authenticity-linking brain morphometric variations are further related to individuals' anxiety symptoms. In this study, we examined these issues among 112 healthy adults by obtaining their brain morphometry with structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and assessing their trait authenticity and anxiety by self-reported measures. The correlation analyses showed that higher trait authenticity was associated with a larger surface area of the left precuneus, while self-alienation, an indicator of lower trait authenticity, was linked to a larger volume of the left amygdala. Further mediation analyses found that, after adjusting for control variables, trait authenticity medi-ated the relationship between the left precuneus surface area and anxiety, and self-alienation mediated the relationship between the left amygdala volume and anxiety. Overall, our study reveals that the left precuneus surface area and the left amygdala volume are neurostructural markers of trait authenticity and offers a brain-personality-symptom pathway to elaborate how these brain morphometry characteristics are further related to fewer anxiety symptoms via trait authenticity.