This is Your Brain on Politics

Today’s
"Triple-Play Award" for speculative bullshit science given an absurd
political interpretation and then mis-represented by the Major Media
goes to a study by a UCLA Psych professor on the brain functioning of
Democrats and Republicans while they were watching political advertising.
Surprising he found
any brain activity
at all….

During the eight months before the election, I was part of a group of
political professionals and scientists from the University of California,
Los Angeles, who used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or f.M.R.I.,
to scan the brains of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, producing images
like those seen above. We measured brain activity while subjects looked
at political advertisements and at images of the presidential candidates.

While viewing their
own candidate, both Democrats and Republicans showed activity
in
the
ventromedial
prefrontal
cortex,
an
area associated
with
strong instinctive feelings of emotional connection. Viewing the
opposing candidate, however, activated the anterior cingulate cortex,
which
indicates cognitive and emotional conflict. It also lighted up the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area that acts to suppress or shape
emotional
reactions.

These patterns of brain activity, made visible on the f.M.R.I.’s,
suggest that both Bush and Kerry voters were mentally battling their
attraction to the other
side.

These patterns of research suggest that UCLA professors should leave politics to the pros, and the bloggers…

from the New York Times