Personality: a Neurobiological Model of Extraversion

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Personality: a Neurobiological Model of Extraversion

Underlying the question of whether brain equals behavior is the possibility that one's personality may be understood on a neurobiological level. Personality affects how a person will behave in certain situations. Peoples' attitudes towards their environments, their dispositions, personal preferences and dislikes all help determine their everyday actions. If behavior is controlled by the nervous system, these factors which make up a person's personality must also fall under its direction. This does not refer to whether one's personality is a result of environment or genomic make-up. It has already been proposed that personality is 50%-70% hereditary and that home environment has little impact on child development (1,2). Here, nature vs. nurture is largely irrelevant; regardless of where one's personality comes from, it reflects chemical and electrical processes occurring within the nervous system.

The higher ordered personality trait which has been most studied for its neurobiological link is extraversion. On a hierarchical level extraversion often describes a person who is sociable, active, assertive and impulsive (3,4). It seems likely that these traits fall under neuronal influence. The first theory which attempted to explain personality biologically linked extraversion with general arousal level of the nervous system. Hans Eysenck proposed that the ascending reticulocortical activating system regulated arousal levels by opening and closing channels for incoming stimulation. J. Gray expounded on the physiology of extraversion through an animal model. The septohippocampal system regulates anxiety while septal-lateral hypothalamic and medial forebrain bundle influenced i...

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...y's role in personality and emotion (membership needed to access article)

http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/elib/do/login

2) Do parents really matter? (membership needed to access article)

http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/libweb/elib/do/login

3) Biology of Personality

http://rosella.bhs.mq.edu.au/~tbates/305/305_biol_bases.html

4) Neurobiologyo f the structure of personality: Dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion. Depue, Richard A. & Collins, Paul F.

ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/.WWW/bbs.depue.html

5) Psychobiology of Personality, Zuckerman, Marvin. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1991

6) The Chemistry of Personality

http://www.learner.org/exhibits/personality/genes_sub.html

7) Lifelines: Biology, Freedom, Determinism. Rose, Steven.

ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/BBS/.WWW/bbs.rose.html

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