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We compare brain activation patterns to identify correlates of membership in the two major parties contrasted with non-partisans. The few studies using functional brain imaging to investigate political phenomena have focused upon members of the two main political parties in the United States. However a substantial portion of the voters do not identify with either the Republicans or Democrats. In this paper, we identify the neural differences that distinguish members of the two main parties, from nonpartisans. In a gambling task, members of the two main parties appear to have greater levels of brain activity in Posterior Medial Cortices that have been previously identified as critical for social cognition and sophisticated political cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a computer algorithm to test whether basic ventral visual processes may prove to be sufficient for predicting electoral outcomes from only facial appearance. The algorithm models only the first stage of primate cortical visual processing, which is primary visual cortex (area V1). The standard linear classifiers were trained on the V1-like visual code, and then the election prediction performance was tested using photos of candidates.

In political science, we have long had low levels of explanatory power with conventional models. Accounting for just a quarter of the variance is usually a tremendous accomplishment and often requires many independent variables and sophisticated statistical techniques. Two dogmas of the discipline, the behaviorist approach and rational choice theory, preclude biological explanations. In this talk, however, I will review a variety of results that show how some of the central phenomena of interest in the field can be accounted for using work based in genetics and neuroscience. I'll discuss work on race, political sophistication, voter turnout, and partisanship. And, I will show how we can use fMRI to predict your political party affiliation with shocking accuracy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We matched public voter records to 54 subjects who performed a risk-taking task during functional imaging. We find that Democrats and Republicans had significantly different patterns of brain activation during processing of risky decisions. Amygdala activations, associated with externally directed reactions to risk, are stronger in Republicans, while insula activations, associated with internally directed reactions to affective perceptions, are stronger in Democrats. These results suggest an internal vs. external difference in evaluative process that illuminates and resolves a discrepancy in the existing literature. This process-based approach to political partisanship is distinct from the policy-based approach that has dominated research for at least the past half century. In fact, a two parameter model of partisanship based on amygdala and insula activations achieves better accuracy in predicting whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican than a well-established model in political science based on parental socialization of party identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I present data from recent experiments using functional brain imagining to argue for a broader view of political cognition rooted in our evolutionary history as social animals applying our values to achieve desired outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an experiment which demonstrated that subjects who are knowledgeable about national politics utilize their mirror neuron regions more strongly than subjects who are not knowledgeable about national politics. The differences in political cognition between political novices and sophisticates appear to center around implicit mechanisms. Political club members seem to have some higher level of empathy for the political figures that they have invested time and energy for.

Political science has accumulated a vast array of information about the results of political thinking. However, models of political cognition have been severely constrained by the kinds of data available. In this paper, I present a computational model of political cognition reflecting recent work in the functional brain imaging of political thinking. I contend that contrary to Converse (1964), political novices are not merely coin-flipping, they are struggling to apply their values to unfamiliar policy choices (DeNardo 1995; Alvarez and Brehm 2002). In this struggle to apply their values, novices engage a reflective brain system (Lieberman, Gaunt et al. 2001 (in press)) composed of their prefrontal lobes, anterior cingulate, and hippocampus. Contrary to Achen (1975) and Zaller (1992), the process that sophisticates use in presenting political attitudes differs from that of novices. They are primarily using a reflexive brain system that includes the temporal lobes, amygdala, and basal ganglia. Sophisticates are able to retrieve and form political attitudes nearly automatically using the pattern recognition capabilities of their temporal lobes, which accounts for their attitudinal stability and consistency (Converse 1964), as well as their faster response times (Schreiber 2000). In addition to the fMRI, response time, and attitudinal data to support the contention that political novices and sophisticates rely on distinct brain systems for opinion expression, I will present a computational model of political cognition. Computational neuroscience is an area of growing importance in cognitive neuroscience (Jennings and Aamodt 2000). Models have grown from simplified representations of neural networks into simulations of particular structures or even entire brain systems (O’Reilly and Munakata 2000). Furthermore, the appreciation of the distinct information processing characteristics of different brain systems has yielded both analytical insight as well as synthesizing previously identified phenomena (Sun 2002). And, fMRI data and response time can now be used to constrain models that are realistic in both information processing and simulated biology (Horwitz, Friston et al. 2000). A biologically plausible model of political cognition will provide tremendous leverage by unifying a number of existing results and suggesting further tests to refine our understanding of political thinking. Achen, C. (1975). Mass Political Attitudes and the Survey Response. American Political Science Review 69: 1281-31. Alvarez, R. M. and J. Brehm (2002). Hard choices, easy answers : values, information, and American public opinion. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. Converse, P. (1964). The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics. Ideology and Discontent. D. Apter. New York, Free Press: 206-261. DeNardo, J. (1995). The Amateur Strategist: Intuitive Deterrence Theories and the Politics of the Nuclear Arms Race. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Horwitz, B., K. J. Friston, et al. (2000). Neural modeling and functional brain imaging: an overview. Neural Netw 13(8-9): 829-46. Jennings, C. and S. Aamodt (2000). Computational Approaches to Brain Function. Nature Neuroscience 3 Supplement: 1160. Lieberman, M. D., R. Gaunt, et al. (2001 (in press)). Reflection and Reflexion: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Approach to Attributional Inference. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology: 31. O’Reilly, R. C. and Y. Munakata (2000). Computational Explorations in Cognitive Neuroscience: Understanding the Mind by Simulating the Brain. Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press. Schreiber, D. (2000). Looking into Their Minds: Latency in Survey Response as Determined by Political Sophistication, Issue Publics, and Cognitive Conflict. Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago. Sun, R. (2002). Duality of the mind : a bottom-up approach toward cognition Mahwah, N.J., L. Erlbaum Associates. Zaller, J. R. (1992). The Nature and Origin of Mass Opinion. New York, Cambridge University Press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political scientists frequently make inferences about how survey respondents and voters are thinking about political issues based on their behavior. In this dissertation, we use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study political cognition and affect during three experiments. The subject population consists of undergraduate political sophisticates and novices. In the first experiment, we show subjects the faces of white and black, famous and not famous, political and nonpolitical persons. In the second study, subjects view images of whites and blacks who are either "value violators" or "value exemplars." The third study asks subjects to answer a series of questions that are either political or nonpolitical, and threatening, non-threatening, or racial. This experimental design enables us to test many theories simultaneously. For instance, behavioral differences in political novices and sophisticates are expected to have neural correlates, "racial politics" may be more about race than politics, emotions are suspected to influence sophisticates more than novices, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I review the physics and physiology underlying fMRI, the experimental methods employed, the statistical techniques used to analyze the data, the interpretation of the output, and review results in some key areas of interest to political science. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MRI has proven to be a useful tool for examining racial attitudes. This study adds nuance to this line of research by focusing on the neural correlates of perception of White and Black political figures. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]