Brain research reveals what makes people political fans care about their opinions

In findings challenging our shared perception of political division, researchers identified a specific brain tour that determines strong interactions with politics without biasing left or right.

The study, published April 10 in the journal Brain, analyzed data from 124 male veterans who suffered breakthroughs in head trauma and found neural pathways that appear to regulate political participation across ideological boundaries.

“Many studies examine brain differences between conservatives and liberals, but our research focuses on the intensity of political participation, and in this regard we find that people in the political field are more similar to those who are different from them,” said Shan Siddiqi, Ph.D., a researcher in psychiatric neuroscience at the Women’s Hospital Hospital.

The research team examined veterans in the Vietnamese head injury study about 40-45 years after the injury. Participants completed a questionnaire to measure their political participation, including their interest in politics, the frequency of their follow-up political news, and how often they discuss politics with others.

What emerges is an amazing pattern that transcends the party line. People who are damaged to certain brain regions show predictable changes, regardless of their ideological tendencies, and the extent of their interaction with politics has changed predictably.

Impairment of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior posterior anterior (related to cognitive control and executive function) is associated with stronger political participation. In contrast, lesions associated with the amygdala and anterior lateral temporal lobe are associated with processes of fear and empathy and are associated with a decrease in political participation.

These findings suggest that our brain wiring may play an important role in determining whether someone becomes a political news fan or avoid political discussion altogether, a feature that seems independent of their vote for Republicans or Democrats.

The researchers noted that political perspective itself has no relationship with any particular neuroanatomical feature and does not affect the relationship between brain anatomy and political participation.

This study, a time of extreme political polarization in the United States, reminds people that our ideological differences may be the common neurological mechanism that drives political behavior across the entire scope.

The method of the study is particularly noteworthy because it uses lesion network mapping, which allows researchers to identify networks of brain regions that are functionally connected to the site of brain injury. This provides not only insights into the damage to brain regions, but also how these damages affect a wider neural circuit.

These findings may inform future political behavior research and may even be clinically applied when evaluating patients after brain injury.

Although this study focused only on male veterans with traumatic brain injury to the brain, the results raise interesting questions about how these circuits work in the general population and in different population groups.

As we approach another controversial election season, this study provides a fascinating point: Though our political divide is strong, the neural mechanisms that drive our level of political participation may be very similar in ideological terms.