Personality Neuroscience: Why It Is of Importance to Consider Primary Emotional Systems!

Montag, Christian; Panksepp, Jaak

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1338

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…In this context, we also mention a moderately strong association in this meta-analysis between higher SEEKING and higher Extraversion, which had been observed/discussed previously, for example in 12 , 42 . Such a correlation pattern is also in line with the idea that Extraversion is linked to what cognitive neuroscientists would call “reward processing” (for a discussion see 43 ), with the SEEKING system being of high relevance as an energetic “Go get it system”.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Third, the overlap between Panksepp’s primary emotional systems and the Big Five provide researchers a route to study the biological basis of the Big Five. Whereas the Big Five personality traits have been merely described using a lexical approach (and basing on this formulated items such as with the NEO-inventories) and therefore do not guide researchers towards an understanding of their biological bases, the substantial overlap of primary emotional systems and the Big Five—as described in this paper—show that neuroanatomical / neurochemical knowledge about the primary emotional systems might also guide neuroscientific studies on the Big Five (how to apply AN theory for such a research endeavor, please see 42 ). But again, the present research must be supplemented by neuroscientific techniques and needs further evidence that the ANPS adequately captures the neurobiology of the primary emotional systems as described by Panksepp in much detail 9 ; see also the recent review paper on the ANPS by Montag et al 44 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A meta-analysis on individual differences in primary emotional systems and Big Five personality traits

Marengo

Davis²,

Gradwohl³

et al. 2021

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The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) were constructed as a self-report assessment to measure individual differences in Jaak Panksepp’s cross-species primary emotional systems: SEEKING, PLAY, CARE (positive emotions) and FEAR, SADNESS, ANGER (negative emotions). Beginning with the first published work on the ANPS in 2003, individual differences on the ANPS measures of these six primary emotional systems have been consistently linked to Big Five personality traits. From a theoretical perspective, these primary emotional systems arising from subcortical regions, shed light on the nature of the Big Five personality traits from an evolutionary perspective, because each of these primary emotional systems represent a tool for survival endowing mammalian species with inherited behavioral programs to react appropriately to complex environments. The present work revisited 21 available samples where both ANPS and Big Five measures have been administered. Our meta-analytical analysis provides solid evidence that high SEEKING relates to high Openness to Experience, high PLAY to high Extraversion, high CARE/low ANGER to high Agreeableness and high FEAR/SADNESS/ANGER to high Neuroticism. This seems to be true regardless of the ANPS inventory chosen, although much more work is needed in this area. Associations between primary emotional systems and Conscientiousness were in the lower effect size area across all six primary emotions, thereby supporting the idea that Conscientiousness rather seems to be less directly related with the subcortical primary emotions and likely is the most cognitive/cortical personality construct out of the Big Five. In sum, the present work underlines the idea that individual differences in primary emotional systems represent evolutionarily ancient foundations of human personality, given their a) meaningful links to the prominent Big Five model and b) their origins lying in subcortical areas of the human brain.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta-analysis on individual differences in primary emotional systems and Big Five personality traits

Marengo

Davis²,

Gradwohl³

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Although overlaps between theories can be observed on the self-report and biological level, as mentioned, Panksepp’s approach to studying the mammalian brain by means of electrical stimulation and pharmacological challenges led to a much more fine-grained picture of the primary emotional systems driving human personality in a bottom-up fashion. Originally, we refrained from providing a detailed list of all brain candidates underlying primary emotional systems, because it is redundant information available in numerous publications (Montag & Panksepp, 2017, in press; Panksepp, 2011). Nevertheless, it became apparent in the review process, that it would be a help for readers to not need to switch to these older publications.…”

Section: In Memory Of Jaak Panksepp (1943–2017)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that no link was robustly observed between Conscientiousness and primary emotions across cultures, which fits with the observation that Conscientiousness has only been reliably measured in chimpanzees and homo sapiens (Gosling & John, 1999; King & Figueredo, 1997) and brown capuchin monkeys (Morton et al, 2013). The model relating primary emotions and the Big Five of Personality has been slightly modified in Montag and Panksepp (in press) with the hypothesis that high SEEKING could also be a driving force for high Extraversion, because both constructs are linked to reward processing (for extraversion and reward processing see Smillie, 2013; the medial forebrain bundle is part of “the intrinsic reward SEEKING system of the brain”; Coenen, Schlaepfer, Maedler, & Panksepp, 2011, p. 1972). Nevertheless, this idea was only partially supported in the data presented by Montag and Panksepp (2017): In this work, only two out of three correlation patterns pointed toward such an association.…”

Section: In Memory Of Jaak Panksepp (1943–2017)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Affective Neuroscience Theory and Personality: An Update

Montag

Davis²

2018

Personality Neuroscience

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The present work gives a short overview of central aspects of Jaak Panksepp’s Affective Neuroscience Theory (AN theory) and its relevance for modern personality neuroscience. In contrast to the widely used Big Five approach to studying and understanding human personality, AN theory provides researchers with a distinct roadmap to the biological basis of personality, including molecular and neuroanatomical candidates, to understand individual differences in human behavior. Such molecular and neuroanatomical brain candidates have been derived by means of electrical brain stimulation and pharmacological challenges, while investigating primary emotional systems anchored in the subcortical mammalian brain. Research results derived from the study of emotions in mammals are also of relevance for humans because ancient layers of our minds—those layers where primary emotions originate—have been homologously conserved across species. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense because primal emotions represent “built-in tools for survival” for all mammals. In this context, Montag and Panksepp recently illustrated a potential ancient neurobiological effect by carving out robust associations between individual differences in primary emotions (assessed via self-report) and the Big Five in a cross-cultural study with data from the United States, Germany, and China. These associations together with some ideas derived from MacLean’s Triune Brain concept highlighted (a) that primary emotions likely represent the phylogenetically oldest parts of human personality and (b) that primary emotions influence human personality in a bottom-up fashion given their localization in ancient subcortical brain regions. A comment on the work by Montag and Panksepp asked for insights on putative links between primary emotions and facets of the Big Five. Therefore, we provide some first insights into such associations from recent Germany data. In addition, the present work provides a new short version of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales to assess individual differences in primary emotions.

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“…As Panksepp, Jalowiec, DeEskinazi, and Bishop (1985) provided evidence that PLAY behavior in rats is influenced by opioids, individual differences in opioid levels or genetic variations of opioid-related genes might be interesting candidates to understand individual differences in extraversion. An overview on candidates to be tested both on neurotransmitter/neuropeptide but also brain anatomical level in the context of personality neuroscience can be found in Montag and Panksepp (2017b) and in Montag and Davis (2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

A Tribute to Jaak Panksepp (1943–2017)

Davis¹,

Montag

2018

Personality Neuroscience

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This article gives a short overview on the life and achievements of Jaak Panksepp. Jaak Panksepp dedicated his life to the study of mammalian emotions. By means of electrical stimulation of the brain and psychopharmacological challenges he carved out seven primary emotional systems being highly conserved across different species of mammals including homo sapiens. The primary emotional systems are called SEEKING, CARE, LUST, PLAY (positive emotions), and FEAR, RAGE, SADNESS (negative emotions). While his early career was characterized by the direct study of these primary emotions in mammals, in his late career he invested more and more time in applying his knowledge to different fields of psychology including personality neuroscience and psychiatry. Jaak started his college education as an engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh but soon switched to clinical psychology. To help finance his college education, he took a job on a psychiatric hospital ward where he had the opportunity to study patients first hand by interacting with them as well as reviewing their clinical files. It was such experience that gave this gifted student the insight that the key to understanding psychopathology and human behavior was first to understand emotions, an insight more likely to be made by an idealistic young mind given the behavioristic and learning theory zeitgeist prevailing in American psychology at that time. His insight led him to pursue a graduate career in (what today would be called) the neuroscience of emotions at the University of Massachusetts. However, Jaak's further insight was that the way to understand human emotions was to begin with animal experimental brain research. He realized that brain science techniques had developed the tools to support "preclinical" research that could help clinical psychology escape the orbit of traditional speculation-based clinical theory into a new sphere in which psychiatric treatments could be based on brain research-this was very much in the tradition of Ivan Pavlov.This was the mindset that the young Jaak took into graduate school where Jay Trowill, his major professor, gave him the space to explore his insights through experimental brain research. In this setting, Jaak began building on the work of pioneers like Hess (1957) to understand what emotional insights could be revealed by probing the rat hypothalamus. Among other things, he discovered that two kinds of aggression could be elicited through the electrical stimulation of the brain to discrete regions of the rat hypothalamus: the first type was an anger-type attack (RAGE) provoked in nature by bodily restraint (like when captured by a predator), or the protection of resources necessary for living (such as food); the second type would later be called a quiet-biting attack that was a function of the SEEKING system and in this case an extension of dopaminergic foraging behavior manifested as predation (Panksepp & Trowill, 1971). Electrical stimulation of the brain, which Jaak would use as a tool throughout...

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Personality Neuroscience: Why It Is of Importance to Consider Primary Emotional Systems!

Cited by 7 publications

References 79 publications

A meta-analysis on individual differences in primary emotional systems and Big Five personality traits

A meta-analysis on individual differences in primary emotional systems and Big Five personality traits

Affective Neuroscience Theory and Personality: An Update

A Tribute to Jaak Panksepp (1943–2017)

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