Biology of personality dimensions

Rapid progress is being made in understanding the neurobiology of human per sonality. This has been facilitated by using self-report questionnaires tha t assess multiple dimensions of personality quantitatively and reliably. Hy pothesis-driven research has mapped models with five to seven dimensions of personality to results from brain imaging, neurophysiology, neurochemistry , and molecular genetics. At each level of organization there are non-linea r interactions among multiple variables. Even at the molecular genetic leve l, each personality dimension is influenced by epistatic interactions among a family of genes, and the sets influencing each trait are partially speci fic and partially overlapping. What emerges is a picture of self-organizing complexity appropriate for psychobiological systems that involve adaptatio n to an ever-changing environment. Curr Opin Psychiatry 13:611-616 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.