Dopamine and extraversion: Differential responsivity may be the key

Depue & Collins's general idea of a functional relationship between DA acti vity and extraversion is an important step toward an integrative biological model of personality. However, focusing primarily on incentive motivation and variations in VTA DA activity as basic behavioral and biological compon ents underlying extraversion appears too limited. Existing data suggest tha t responsivity to changes in DA activity is higher in introverts than in ex traverts. This may reflect a general, extraversion-related characteristic o f the entire dopaminergic network in the brain.