A Topographic study of differences in the P300 between introverts and extraverts

Abstract

This paper presents results of a study to establish a link between neurocognitive psychophysiological and psychological type data through the investigation of differences in topographic auditory event-related potential (AERP) (P300) patterns in strongly introverted (n = 17) and strongly extraverted ( = 16) high school males as identified by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Group data files were created for the auditory event related potential task and converted to ASCII form. Amplitude values were evaluated at each scalp site. Kruskal Wallis one way analysis of variance was performed to evaluate group differences. In processing of infrequent, target stimuli, the amplitude of the P300 waveform for introverts was higher than for extraverts. When processing for non-target stimuli was subtracted from target stimuli, statistical differences were found over nine central, parietal, and occipital sites. The findings support and extend theories of biologically-based and bio-psycho-social typology.

Extraversion and the P300 in a visual classification task

“…Daruna et al ( 1985) found the expected result in a stimulus-guessing task. as did Wilson and Languis ( 1990) in a conventional oddball task. However.…”

“…1985;Ditraglia & Polich, 1991;O'Connor, 1983: Orlebeke, Kok & Zeillemaker, 1989: Polich & Martin, 1992Pritchard, 1989: Wilson & Languis, 1990. The studies have generally adhered to the auditory oddball paradigm, or some variation thereof.…”

Energetical bases of extraversion: Effort, arousal, EEG, and performance

“…One may therefore conclude that the reduction in the P300 amplitude indicates the amount of effort that was necessary to compensate for arousal conditions being less optimal for the respective group. The effect of larger P300 amplitudes of introverts in monotonous oddball tasks of longer duration reported in Daruna et al (1985), Ditraglia and Polich (1991), Ortiz and Maojo (1993), Polich and Martin (1992), and Wilson and Languis (1990) may also indicate that extraverts had to invest more effort than introverts under conditions of less optimal arousal.…”

Emotional Significance of the Stimulus and Features of the Personality as Factors Reflected in the Pattern of Evoked EEG Potentials

“…A decreased amplitude of the Р3 is a significant marker of predisposition to alcoholism and drug addiction [129]. Noticeable correlations between the Р3 parameters and the peculiarities of the temperament and character of individuals were also found [130][131][132].…”

“…It should, however, be emphasized that the opinions of different researchers on the pattern of such relations are in many cases contradictory. Observations of a few authors indicated that the amplitude of the Р3 in introverts is higher than that in extraverts [164], and the most clearly expressed (significant) differences were observed in the central/parietal/occipital regions [130]. As was supposed [165], the greater Р3 component in introverts is related to the greater level of voluntary attention in these subjects and also to the higher level of general cerebral activation [166].…”