Correlations between five-pattern personality scores from traditional Chinese medicine and autonomic nervous response indicators in healthy female college students

Objective To explore the correlations between five-pattern personality scores and autonomic nervous response indicators in Chinese female college students, to provide a foundation for further exploration of the modern physiological basis of these personality types. Methods Subjects were asked to fill in “The Five-Pattern Personality Inventory” (revised edition 2008). Taiyang, Shaoyang, yin-yang balance, Taiyin, and Shaoyin personalities were scored. The galvanic skin response and heart rate, and the low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), and LF/HF ratio of heart rate variability were collected using a 16-channel physiological recorder (BIOPAC MP150). Relationship between the five-pattern personality scores and autonomic nervous response indicators was analyzed using bivariate correlation. Results The five-pattern personality scores of the subjects were compared with national averages. The Taiyang and Shaoyang personality scores of the subjects were significantly lower than the overall national average, the national female average, and the national female average in the 18–29-year-old age group (all P < .05). The Taiyang personality score was negatively correlated with both the LF and the HF ( P = .009 and P = .001, respectively), and the yin-yang balance personality score was significantly negatively correlated with the galvanic skin response ( P = .026). Conclusion There is a relationship between five-pattern personality scores and autonomic nervous response indicators in Chinese female college students. The higher the Taiyang personality score, the lower the sympathetic and vagus nerve excitability; the higher the yin-yang balance personality score, the lower the sympathetic nerve excitability.