Extraversion degrades performance on the antisaccade task.

Previous studies have suggested that baseline and task-related activity within the prefrontal cortex varies with the degree of extraversion; we examined whether this trait influenced performance on the antisaccade task, a measure commonly used in psychiatric and neurological disorders. Extraversion was assessed in young normal subjects using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short-scale. Highly extraverted and highly introverted subjects' antisaccade errors and latencies were evaluated. Extraversion was associated with significantly more errors but did not influence the latency of either correct or erroneous responses. This effect on error rate but not latency is similar to that seen in schizotypal personality disorder, whereas normal ageing, as well as schizophrenia and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, increase errors and also delay saccade onset. This is the first study in a young, non-clinical population to show an influence of a normal personality dimension on an ocular motor measure.