Neurological Theory of Personality with EEG
Key Studies:
Corr (2016): biography of Eysenck.
Blanchard & Blanchard (1990): present a mouse/rat with a real or potential threat
next to food = causes goal conflict. Septo-hippocampal system is part of the limbic
system found in the temporal lobe (theta rhythmicity).
Cohen (2017): the standard model of EEG states simultaneous post-synaptic
potentials of neural populations produce EEG = explains the existence of EEG, BUT
not the meaning of the content of the signals = we know very little about where EEG
signals come from and what they mean. Neural oscillations = best feature of an EEG
for grounding because they can be observed at many spatiotemporal scales, in many
species and widely implicated in cognitive and neural computations.
Notes:
Eysenck:
Started in pre-world war 2 Germany, moved to London.
His first theory: integration of personality into science, people react differently to the
same stimulus and argued that personality decides how the person reacts and
explained the differences between people. Grouped people to be scientific.
Second theory: the main driving factor for differences between people is biological,
predetermined by biological factors e.g., genetic and phonotypic factors, a set of
neural structures were developed for each dimension. The dimensions: extravert-
introvert, stable-neurotic (in the middle of each dimension is normalcy, the statistical
average and the outer of each dimension is abnormality, towards clinical levels.
- research with drugs has provided some validation for Eysenck’s dimensions and
biological underpinnings: Munkelt (1965) tranquilisers, Janke (1964) depressant
drugs, Eysenck & Slater (1958).
Heritability studies: twin studies suggest neuroticism is 30-50% heritable (Birley et al,
2006 and Penderson & Rasmuson, 1980). Extraversion is estimated to be 53%
heritable (Jang et al, 1996). However, we don’t yet have a single nucleotide
polymorphism (gene) for extraversion or neuroticism (Calboli et al, 2010 and
Lukaszewski & Roney, 2015).
Introverts and extraverts have distinct differences in how they respond to arousal,
measured by galvanic skin response: extraverts have a lower baseline galvanic skin
measure than introverts = extraverts always seeking stimulation to bring up their
arousal. Extraverts’ arousal also decreases to baseline a lot faster than introverts =
extraverts ready for arousal again faster than introverts.
Eysenck mapped the dimension of introversion-extraversion onto the ascending
reticulating activating system (ARAS), which has two branches: the ascending branch
which takes sensory information and projects it to the cerebral cortex for processing
and the descending branch which takes commands from the brain and projects them
to the spinal cord which goes to the muscles.
Key Studies:
Corr (2016): biography of Eysenck.
Blanchard & Blanchard (1990): present a mouse/rat with a real or potential threat
next to food = causes goal conflict. Septo-hippocampal system is part of the limbic
system found in the temporal lobe (theta rhythmicity).
Cohen (2017): the standard model of EEG states simultaneous post-synaptic
potentials of neural populations produce EEG = explains the existence of EEG, BUT
not the meaning of the content of the signals = we know very little about where EEG
signals come from and what they mean. Neural oscillations = best feature of an EEG
for grounding because they can be observed at many spatiotemporal scales, in many
species and widely implicated in cognitive and neural computations.
Notes:
Eysenck:
Started in pre-world war 2 Germany, moved to London.
His first theory: integration of personality into science, people react differently to the
same stimulus and argued that personality decides how the person reacts and
explained the differences between people. Grouped people to be scientific.
Second theory: the main driving factor for differences between people is biological,
predetermined by biological factors e.g., genetic and phonotypic factors, a set of
neural structures were developed for each dimension. The dimensions: extravert-
introvert, stable-neurotic (in the middle of each dimension is normalcy, the statistical
average and the outer of each dimension is abnormality, towards clinical levels.
- research with drugs has provided some validation for Eysenck’s dimensions and
biological underpinnings: Munkelt (1965) tranquilisers, Janke (1964) depressant
drugs, Eysenck & Slater (1958).
Heritability studies: twin studies suggest neuroticism is 30-50% heritable (Birley et al,
2006 and Penderson & Rasmuson, 1980). Extraversion is estimated to be 53%
heritable (Jang et al, 1996). However, we don’t yet have a single nucleotide
polymorphism (gene) for extraversion or neuroticism (Calboli et al, 2010 and
Lukaszewski & Roney, 2015).
Introverts and extraverts have distinct differences in how they respond to arousal,
measured by galvanic skin response: extraverts have a lower baseline galvanic skin
measure than introverts = extraverts always seeking stimulation to bring up their
arousal. Extraverts’ arousal also decreases to baseline a lot faster than introverts =
extraverts ready for arousal again faster than introverts.
Eysenck mapped the dimension of introversion-extraversion onto the ascending
reticulating activating system (ARAS), which has two branches: the ascending branch
which takes sensory information and projects it to the cerebral cortex for processing
and the descending branch which takes commands from the brain and projects them
to the spinal cord which goes to the muscles.
