Assoziation narzisstischer Persönlichkeitszüge mit MR-morphometrischen Parametern der Hirnstruktur
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Abstract
The personality construct of narcissism envelopes more than the criteria
established by the DSM-V to diagnose a narcissistic personality disorder.
Narcissism can be seen as a personality accentuation in the dimensions of a selfconfident grandiose phenotype and a reactive vulnerable phenotype.
In the psychiatric / psychological clinic narcissism is mostly prevalent as a
comorbidity in depressive and abusive disorders. It can inhibit the therapeutic
process by disturbing the relationship between patient and therapist. But
subclinical narcissism can also be beneficiary and functional, for example by
entailing a successful career.
This dissertation aims to examine the relationship between subclinical narcissistic
traits and brain structure. Previous studies had described mostly negative
correlations of pathological narcissistic traits with the cortical volume (CV) or
fractional anisotropy (FA) as an index for white matter integrity. Models of
deficient, mostly frontolimbic and frontostriatal networks had been developed.
By way of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), in populations of 372,
respectively 347 for FA, the relationship between subclinical narcissistic traits and
CV, cortical thickness, cortical gyrification and FA were examined.
This produced several statistically significant results. The NPI subscale
Exploitative / Entitlement was positively associated with both the CV in the left
orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the FA in the left anterior cingulum. Statistically
significant positive associations between the NPI sum score and the NPI
subscale Leadership / Authority with FA were also found in smaller clusters in the
right posterior cingulum.
These findings fit into the previous literature under the assumption of a nonlinear
association of subclinical to pathological narcissistic traits with the brain structure.
This model assumes a turning point from a positive to a negative association
when subclinical functional traits turn into pathologically dysfunctional traits. It
makes the findings of a greater CV and FA in brain regions which normally are
functionally deficient in narcissists plausible and strengthens the models of
frontolimbic networks affected in narcissism that are relevant in emotion
regulation and empathy. These findings and their interpretation are limited by aspects of an open study
design, homogenous study populations, by data acquisition by MRI prone to
disturbances as well as by the analytical methodology and a liberal policy of
statistical control.
Nonetheless this dissertational project enhances the understanding of the
relationship between narcissism and brain structure. It guides future research to
the OFC, the Cingulum and neural networks that encompass them as well as to
a differentiated examination of singular and specific narcissistic traits and related
phenotypes.
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Dates
Created: 2025Issued: 2025-08-06Updated: 2025-08-06
Faculty
Medizin
Publisher
Philipps-Universität Marburg
Language
ger
Data types
DoctoralThesis
Keywords
Cortical volumeCorticales VolumenFraktionelle AnisotropieFractional anisotropyBrain StructureWhite matterNarcissism
DFG-subjects
MRIMRTWeiße SubstanzNarzissmusCortexHirnstrukturKortexDTIVBM
DDC-Numbers
610
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Terhorst, Lennart Martin: Assoziation narzisstischer Persönlichkeitszüge mit MR-morphometrischen Parametern der Hirnstruktur. : Philipps-Universität Marburg 2025-08-06. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/z2025.0388.
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This item has been published with the following license: In Copyright