Trait absorption is not reliably associated with brain structure or resting-state functional connectivity

Neuroimage Reports, vol. 3, pp. 100171

Abstract

Trait 'absorption' is a psychological construct with a rich history that was initially born from early work on hypnotic suggestibility. Absorption characterizes an individual's tendency to become effortlessly engrossed in the contents of experience, whether in terms of external sensory phenomena or internal imagery and fantasy, and is reliably associated with a constellation of psychological, cognitive, and behavioral traits. Here, we conducted a comprehensive neuroimaging investigation of associations between trait absorption and the brain. In particular, we assessed multivariate relationships between absorption scores and neuroimaging measures of grey matter density, as well as static and dynamic resting-state functional connectivity. We investigated these relationships using partial least squares in a discovery dataset (n = 201) and then attempted to reproduce results in an independent replication dataset (n = 68). Results revealed a lack of significant associations between absorption and grey matter density across both datasets, and a significant association between absorption and static resting-state functional connectivity in the discovery dataset which was not replicated in the replication dataset. Additional control analyses further indicated the lack of a reliable brain-absorption relationship, whereas we found a replicable association between the closely related trait of 'openness to experience' and resting-state functional connectivity. We conclude that absorption is not reliably associated with brain structure or function in the present datasets and discuss factors that may have contributed to this result. This study serves as the first comprehensive and adequately powered investigation of the neural correlates of absorption and motivates future studies to refine the conceptualization of this perplexing trait.

Authors 5

1. Manesh Girn

   Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital · McGill University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

2. R. Nathan Spreng

   Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital · Douglas Mental Health University Institute · McGill University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

   Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

   Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, QC, Canada

   McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

3. Daniel S. Margulies

   Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Université Paris Cité

   Affiliation as printed

   Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Université de Paris, Paris, France

4. Michiel van Elk Aachen Department of Psychology, Leiden University

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

5. Michael Lifshitz

   Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research · McGill University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

   Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Montreal, QC, Canada