The personality-brain association mechanism has been a topic of interest in the field of neuroscience. Usually, the previous research strategy was to first group the population based on different personality traits, and then explore the brain mechanisms corresponding to different personality groups. At present, a "brain-first" research strategy, which uses data-driven approaches instead of personality traits to first group the population, has been adopted to further enhance study objectivity.

Here, we used a data-driven approach following the "brain-first" research strategy to deeply mine the resting-state brain functional magnetic resonance imaging data of 119 healthy participants, classified subjects into different groups based on brain image characteristics, and used the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire to explain the variabilities of resting-state brain characteristics between different groups.

We have identified 3 personality–brain connections, including the privateness–left frontoparietal network, liveliness–sensory–motor network, and vigilance–sensory–motor network.

We conclude that the above-mentioned three personality factors are based on brain neural activity, independent of the subjective experience of the personality scale creator, and have stronger explanatory power of brain imaging features.