Psychoticism and dopamine D2 binding in the basal ganglia using single photon emission tomography

The aim of the study was to investigate the hypothesis of an association between personality and dopaminergic mechanisms. Subjects were a sub-set of normal controls who were scanned as part of a large study of in vivo dopamine D2 receptor binding in schizophrenia (Pilowsky, Costa, Ell, Verhoeff, Murray & Kerwin, 1994). Nine of the normal control subjects subsequently completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. As predicted, there was found to be a significant correlation between Psychoticism and dopamine D2 binding in the left and right basal ganglia. There was found to be no association between Extraversion, Neuroticism, or the Lie scale and dopamine D2 binding. Although these results have to be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size, they represent interesting preliminary evidence that dopamine function is implicated in the biological basis of the Psychoticism personality dimension.