Do introverts have a

general preference for a

certain type of nonsocial
stimuli?

By: Ann Hsieh

Introduction
Higher extraversion scores
positively correlated to enhanced social stimuli for
individuals faces
social stimuli carry enhanced motivational significance
for individuals characterized by high extraversion
stronger response in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens

Introverts and extraverts have different neural

pathways

Subject Participants
30 Healthy young adults (15 males and 15
females, between the ages of 18 and 40)
o
o

formal education average: 13.5 years

diverse ethnic composition

Extraversion scale will be administered

following the ERP task to avoid any
unintended priming

Method
ERP - directly measure brain responses to discrete
stimuli
o P300 - proportional to amount of attentional resources engaged in
processing a given stimulus
motivational significance

o See the neural activity of introverts when presenting

them with non social stimuli such as objects and
places
(same visual complexity of faces)
plants - flowers, animals - fishes, places

Predicted Results
Since introverts do not place as much
emphasis on social stimuli, perhaps they are
more motivated to process objects as their
preference for nonsocial stimuli.
o

Due to tool use?

Questions?
Future directions:
o Change the way how we can educate and interact
with extraverts and introverts