The researchers found similarities between the three. The researchers compared a specific network in the gray matter found to be vulnerable to aging they had identified from MRI data of healthy subjects’ brains, with patterns of grey matter damage observed in brain scans of people with Alzheimer's and people with schizophrenia. They add the area does not fully develop until late adolescence or early adulthood, and is linked to intellectual capacity and long-term memory. Gray matter is not only one of the last regions of the brain to develop, but it is also one of the first to degenerate, the researchers reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Gwenaëlle Douaud, PhD, of the Oxford University Functional MRI of the Brain Centre in the United Kingdom, and colleagues, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to look at changes in the brain structure of 484 healthy people, ranging in age from 8 to 85 years. The grey matter is largely responsible for processing information, whilst the white matter acts as the roadways through which information is shared between different parts of the brain.Grey matter in the brain, which contains a network of nerve cells involved in processing information from different senses, appears to be more susceptible to early aging, which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. The brain is made up of three primary types of tissue-grey matter, white matter and cerebral spinal fluid. It might be that part of the reason early types are more social and agreeable is related to grey matter in this region of the brain."Įveningness, meanwhile, has previously been shown to be associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders and personality traits such a neuroticism.
"So, whilst we don't have a measure of agreeableness in these individuals, it looks like there could be a signature in the brain that underpins it. We also know that reduced volume in this area has been associated with empathy, agreeableness and cooperation, so it ties nicely with behavioural data that suggests early chronotypes tend to engage in more pro-social behaviours than evening types. "We know from meta-analysis and previous work that this is a key component of our social brain.
"What we found was that evening types had greater grey matter volume in an area of the brain called the precuneus," said Dr. Norbury set out to determine whether there was any correlation between a late chronotype, and having a higher volume of grey matter. Using a selection of data from the Medical Research Council's Biobank-which includes information from thousands of volunteers, including brain scans and questionnaire answers on a preference for mornings or evenings-Dr. Ray Norbury, a senior lecturer in psychology at Brunel's Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience. "We know that some people like to go to bed quite late and get up quite late," said researcher Dr. The paper – Diurnal Preference and Grey Matter Volume in a Large Population of Older Adults – was published by the Journal of Circadian Rhythms. Previous studies have shown that lower volumes of grey matter are associated with how empathetic or cooperative a person is, traits that scientists have also previously found correlate with being an early bird, suggesting such personality traits could be underpinned by a physical signature. A new survey of thousands of MRI scans revealed that people with a preference for waking up in the late hours of one morning, and going to bed in the early hours of the next, are likely to have a higher volume of grey matter in their precuneus, a key area of the brain associated with social behaviour.
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