Are Introverts Wired Differently Than Extroverts?

Ever since I was little, I wanted to have olive skin. I wanted to tan easily. If I had this complexion, I thought, I would be "cool". Society taught me that having this healthy glow was more appealing; it meant you were attractive and thus had an easy, relaxed life (it was basically visual evidence that you had plenty of time to soak up the sun). However, long ago, it was more attractive to be pale and fair skinned. It meant that you were rich and from noble lines. Basically, our attractiveness standards have changed in American society.

Along the same vein, American culture applauds the "virtues" of extroversion. As Susan Cain explains in her book Quiet, in the early 1900's, led by a man named Dale Carnegie, the agricultural America turned its focus towards being a business powerhouse. At this time, inner attributes that were once valued, such as one's character (like being honorable and well-mannered), soon became sub-par compared to outward characteristics like being fascinating and dynamic. Since then, extroverts have been depicted as more fun, social, funny, interesting, successful, etc. But I'm here to tell you that in reality we're all okay.

“Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again.” Anaïs Nin

Because society holds extroverts to be the ideal, I wanted to be that "cool" kid with the shades, surrounded by adoring friends-the one who had it all. I wanted to be the ideal version of myself. As much as I tried though, I could not pull off a believable attempt of being extroverted. It was because introversion is at the core of who I am (see earlier post "Born This Way"). Expanding on this topic of either being born an introvert or shown to be like an introvert-or both, I began to wonder if an introvert's brain functions differently from that of an extrovert.

According to Ben Thomas, there are several neural clues and intriguing hints that explain how introverts think and process information differently than extroverts. A certain study done in Harvard in 2012 showed that "people who identify as introverts tend to have larger and thicker gray matter in certain areas of the prefrontal cortex, a highly complex brain region associated with abstract thought and decision-making. People who identify as strongly extroverted, on the other hand, tend to have thinner gray matter in those same prefrontal areas—which hints that introverts tend to devote more neural resources to abstract pondering, while extroverts tend to live in the moment." Also, "researchers have found that an introvert’s premotor cortex tends to process stimuli more quickly than that of an extrovert." 

Still other studies found "that the right-hemisphere amygdala tends to be larger in extroverts than in introverts, as does the anterior cingulate cortex... Since other studies have implicated the anterior cingulate in social error detection, this may point to some underlying (but still incompletely understood) differences in the ways introverts and extroverts process social missteps." One last intriguing fact that was brought up by Thomas is that "studies have found that cortical neurons of introverts and extroverts may respond differently to the neurotransmitter chemicals gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA)—an intriguing finding since both GABA and NMDA have both been implicated in anxiety disorders."

In a nutshell, the answer to the question is yes. There are several molecular differences between the introvert's and extrovert's brain.

If any introvert is feeling glum while reading this, thinking that there is no possibility of being "cool" like the idealized extrovert, know that it's not a bad thing to be introverted. In fact, several other countries in the world actually value introversion and quietness over extroversion. And just remember that, even in our extroverted-dominant society, introversion was once the more preferred trait one could hold. In any case, I would like to encourage any introvert feeling at a state of loss to focus on the positive qualities you possess and surround yourself with those who celebrate these positive qualities.

“Isn’t it refreshing to know that what comes perfectly natural for you is your greatest strength? Your power is in your nature. You may not think it’s a big deal that you can spend hours immersed in something that interests you—alone—but the extrovert next door has no idea how you do it.” Laurie Helgoe