Scientists discover area of brain that makes a "people person"

The research was published in the European Journal of Neuroscience on Tuesday. Researchers from the Cambridge Department of Psychiatry, in collaboration with Oulu University, Finland, examined the relationship between personality and brain structure in 41 male volunteers. The volunteers underwent a brain scan using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). They also completed a questionnaire to rate themselves on items such as "I make a warm personal connection with most people," or "I like to please other people as much as I can." The answers to the questionnaire provide an overall measure of emotional warmth and sociability called social reward dependence. The researchers then analyzed the relationship between social reward dependence and the concentration of grey matter (brain-cell containing tissue) in different brain regions. They found that the greater the concentration of tissue in the orbit frontal cortex (the outer strip of the brain just above the eyes), and in the ventral striatum (a deep structure in the center of the brain), the higher they tended to score on the social reward dependence measure. The research could also lead to new insights into psychiatric disorders where difficulties in social interaction are prominent, such as autism or schizophrenia, Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.chinaview.cn for full version.