"overstimulation"

in a previous post, I mentioned a post about 10 myths about introverts, and one of those myths is:

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.
Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

..which paints this picture of an introvert going into a club and saying "oh no! it's too exciting and fun in here! I want to go read a book which is slower and simpler!"

and it defends this picture by saying that introverts' brains are "too sensitive" to dopamine to handle such high energy situations, "just look it up."

well, a friend found the reference: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/epp/3/1/37/

now mind you, I didn't read it — I couldn't be bothered to pay for what is probably tax funded research — but I read the publicly available abstract, which indeed suggests that introverts are more susceptible to dopamine than extraverts..

however, it doesn't say that lots of talking and noise produce dopamine.

here's an alternative model:
kids like to bang pots and pans together. adults find it annoying.
extraverts like lots of people packed together with loud noise. introverts find it annoying.

they don't find it annoying because there is too much information to process.
they find it annoying because there is very little information at all — the information is just really loud.