Caffeine Produces Neutral Effects on Extraverts’ and Introverts’ Performance of Fundamental Motor Skills

Abstract

Abstract Extraverts are active and talkative, while introverts are quiet and calm. This difference has been attributed to the cortical activation level (arousal), which is low in extraverts and high in introverts. Thus, to reach an optimal level of arousal, extraverts seek stimulation and introverts avoid it. As caffeine increases arousal levels, our primary aim was to investigate the effect of caffeine on the performance of extraverted and introverted university students in the execution of stability, manipulative, and locomotor tasks. Considering the above, we evaluated side effects, such as restlessness and trembling of hands, we also analyzed the individual's perception regarding caffeine intake and the placebo. Forty two volunteers were classified as 21 extraverts and 21 introverts by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Participants performed three tasks on two different days, having previously ingested caffeine and a placebo in counterbalanced order. A double-blind technique was employed. The dependent variable was the execution time to perform the tasks. The analyses of variance [2 (extraversion/introversion) x 2 (caffeine x placebo)] for each task did not show significant differences. Regarding the secondary aim, the chi-square test showed that introverts had a better perception of the substance they had ingested than did extraverts. Our findings indicate that in the execution of stability, manipulative, and locomotor tasks, either caffeine or the placebo produced the same effect, regardless of the participants' extraversion score. In addition, introverts were more sensitive to perceive which substance was ingested, caffeine or the placebo, than extraverts.