INTROVERTS!!!EPISODE 4!!!
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT: article by lecia bushak.
In the 1960s, a psychologist named Hans Eysenck theorised that extroverts had a lower level of something called “arousal.” Eysenck believed that extroverts required more stimulation from the world in order to feel alert and awake, while introverts were easily over-stimulated. This helped to explain extroverts’ sense of risk-taking, challenges, and constant social company to keep them stimulated, while introverts often had to seek out alone time in order to lower their over-stimulation — thriving best at home, in library corners, or in peaceful parks.
This notion paved the way for scientists to delve a little deeper into our minds to help understand what defined these two different personalities. In 2005, researchers concluded in a study that it all might be linked to dopamine — the reward system in the brains of extroverts responded differently than those of introverts. In the study, researchers used a brain scanner to examine responses from participants who were doing a gambling task. They found that when gambling brought positive results, the extroverts exhibited a stronger response in two regions of the brain: the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, showing that they processed surprise and reward differently than introverts. If extroverts responded more strongly to gambling paying off, they probably would respond more strongly to adventures, social challenges, or taking risks.
A 2012 study completed by Randy Buckner of Harvard University discovered that introverts tended to have larger, thicker gray matter in their prefrontal cortex — a region of the brain that is linked to abstract thought and decision-making — while extroverts had less gray matter. Buckner concluded that this might be accountable for introverts’ tendencies to sit in a corner and ponder things thoroughly before making a decision, and extroverts’ ability to live in the moment and take risks without fully thinking everything through (which has its cons and benefits, of course).