Frontal brain electrical activity in shyness and sociability

A number of studies have shown that shyness and sociability may be two inde pendent personality traits that are distinguishable across a variety of mea sures and cultures. Utilizing recent frontal activation-emotion models as a theoretical framework, this study examined the pattern of resting frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in undergraduates who self-reported high and low shyness and sociability. Analyses revealed that shyness was as sociated with greater relative I right frontal EEG activity whereas sociabi lity was associated with greater relative left frontal EEG activity. Also, different combinations of shyness and sociability were distinguishable on t he basis of resting frontal EEG power: Although high-shy/high-social and hi gh-shy/low-social subjects both exhibited greater relative right frontal EE G activity they; differed significantly on EEG power in the left, but not r ight, frontal lead High-shy/high-social subjects exhibited significantly le ss EEG power (i.e., more activity) in the left frontal lend compared with t he high-shy/low-social subjects. These findings suggest that in distinguish ing individual differences in personality and personality subtypes, it is i mportant to consider not only frontal EEG asymmetry measures, belt also the pattern of absolute EEG power in each frontal hemisphere.