Thinking too much: Self-generated thought as the engine of neuroticism

TY - JOUR

T1 - Thinking too much

T2 - Self-generated thought as the engine of neuroticism

AU - Perkins, Adam M.

AU - Arnone, Danilo

AU - Smallwood, Jonathan

AU - Mobbs, Dean

PY - 2015/9/1

Y1 - 2015/9/1

N2 - Neuroticism is a dimension of personality that captures trait individual differences in the tendency to experience negative thoughts and feelings. Established theories explain neuroticism in terms of threat sensitivity, but have limited heuristic value since they cannot account for features of neuroticism that are unrelated to threat, such as creativity and negative psychological states experienced in benign, threat-free environments. We address this issue by proposing that neuroticism stems from trait individual differences in activity in brain circuits that govern the nature of self-generated thought (SGT). We argue our theory explains not only the association of neuroticism with threat sensitivity but also the prominence within the neurotic mind of representations of information that are unrelated to the way the world is right now, such as creativity and nonsituational 'angst'.

AB - Neuroticism is a dimension of personality that captures trait individual differences in the tendency to experience negative thoughts and feelings. Established theories explain neuroticism in terms of threat sensitivity, but have limited heuristic value since they cannot account for features of neuroticism that are unrelated to threat, such as creativity and negative psychological states experienced in benign, threat-free environments. We address this issue by proposing that neuroticism stems from trait individual differences in activity in brain circuits that govern the nature of self-generated thought (SGT). We argue our theory explains not only the association of neuroticism with threat sensitivity but also the prominence within the neurotic mind of representations of information that are unrelated to the way the world is right now, such as creativity and nonsituational 'angst'.

KW - Creativity

KW - Medial prefrontal cortex

KW - Neuroticism

KW - Personality

KW - Self-generated thought

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940062611&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.tics.2015.07.003

DO - 10.1016/j.tics.2015.07.003

M3 - Article

SN - 1364-6613

VL - 19

SP - 492

EP - 498

JO - TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES

JF - TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES

IS - 9

ER -