ArticleeLife2022
Personality traits are consistently associated with blood mitochondrial DNA copy number estimated from genome sequences in two genetic cohort studies.
Article in eLife, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Personality and mortality risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal data.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Personality and Risk of Arthritis in Six Longitudinal Samples.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Clinical, cognitive and neuropsychiatric correlates of personality in Wilson's disease.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Article
- The role of mitotype variation and positive epistasis in trait differences between Saccharomyces species.Genetics · 2026Article
- Normal human cell strains characterized by the properties of mesenchymal stromal cells: implications for the fundamental features of cultured cells.Human cell · 2026Article
- Personality and epigenetic aging: A multi-cohort and multi-clock study.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Unraveling the brain-joint axis: genetic, transcriptomic, and cohort insights from neuroticism to osteoarthritis.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2025Article
- Neuroticism, loneliness, all-cause and cause-specific mortality: A 17-year study of nearly 500,000 individuals.Journal of affective disorders · 2025Article
- Personality traits and the risk of sensory impairment: Evidence from the National Health and Aging Trends Study.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Article
- Neuroticism and white matter hyperintensities.Journal of psychiatric research · 2023Article
- The association between personality and plasma biomarkers of astrogliosis and neuronal injury.Neurobiology of aging · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) in tissues and blood can be altered in conditions like diabetes and major depression and may play a role in aging and longevity. However, little is known about the association between mtDNAcn and personality traits linked to emotional states, metabolic health, and longevity. This study tests the hypothesis that blood mtDNAcn is related to personality traits and mediates the association between personality and mortality. Methods: We assessed the big five personality domains and facets using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), assessed depressive symptoms with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), estimated mtDNAcn levels from whole-genome sequencing, and tracked mortality in participants from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Results were replicated in the SardiNIA Project. Results: We found that mtDNAcn was negatively associated with the Neuroticism domain and its facets and positively associated with facets from the other four domains. The direction and size of the effects were replicated in the SardiNIA cohort and were robust to adjustment for potential confounders in both samples. Consistent with the Neuroticism finding, higher depressive symptoms were associated with lower mtDNAcn. Finally, mtDNAcn mediated the association between personality and mortality risk. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to show a replicable association between mtDNAcn and personality. Furthermore, the results support our hypothesis that mtDNAcn is a biomarker of the biological process that explains part of the association between personality and mortality. Funding: Support for this work was provided by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging (Z01-AG000693, Z01-AG000970, and Z01-AG000949) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health. AT was also supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health Grant R01AG068093.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.