Personality and the Default Mode Network: An EEG Study
Open Access
- Author:
- Swider, Luke Joseph
- Area of Honors:
- Elective Area of Honors - Neurosciences
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- William Ray, Thesis Honors Advisor
Dr. Semyon Slobounov, Faculty Reader
William Ray, Thesis Supervisor - Keywords:
- neuroscience
networks
personality - Abstract:
- Recent research in neuroscience and psychology has emphasized how the brain is organized in terms of networks. One interesting question is how fairly stable traits like personality style are related to cortical networks, and there has been little prior research in this area. We will look at individuals who are exemplars of various personality styles, namely introverts and extroverts. We are interested in the activity of these cortical networks during periods of no input (the default mode network). Furthermore, we are investigating whether there are significant differences in the activity of the Default Mode Network between introverts and extroverts. This will provide insight into the correlation between neural structure and activity and observed behavior. Using surveys to determine personality type, participants were recruited and EEG was performed during resting states. Participants were classified according to their introversion and extroversion scores, and data was processed in EEGLAB using fourier transform, and average power for frequency bands as well as coherence between brain regions was calculated. Significant interactions between personality, region, and coherence were noted in the Delta and Theta Bands in ROIs 3, 4, and 7.