Personality/behavioral characteristics in children: Differential effects of putative anterior versus posterior cerebral asymmetry

The current study was carried out to examine the possible relationships among personality/behavioral characteristics and anterior/posterior (A/P) functional cerebral asymmetry in children referred for learning problems. Two hundred nineteen children between 7 and 12 years of age were administered a battery of neuropsychological measures, and their parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBC) and the Personality Inventory for Children-Revised (PIC). Anterior and posterior composite scores were obtained for each subject using scores on the neuropsychological measures. Out of this subject pool, 33 children had sufficient anterior/posterior (A/P) score differences (i.e., greater than one standard deviation difference) to permit their categorization into either an A (n = 19) or P (n = 14) group. The MANOVA results showed that the A group scored significantly higher than the P group on the CBC scales of social withdrawal, aggressiveness, hyperactivity and externalizing, while the P group scored higher, though not significantly, on the (PIC) scale of anxiety. Thus, it appeared that, by using neuropsychological measures along the A/P dimension to classify children with learning problems, significant differences could also be identified on personality/ behavioral variables for some children. In addition, in the current study, children with A type functional cerebral asymmetry exhibited a relatively greater number of behavioral problems.