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Political Orientation Could Be Predicted by Differences in Brain Activation and Synchronization
Home  Featured

Political Orientation Could Be Predicted by Differences in Brain Activation and Synchronization

Featured Neuroscience Psychology · January 30, 2023

Summary: Neuroimaging reveals partisanship-dependent differences in brain stimulation when people are exposed to political messaging
from either their own or opposing political sides.

Source: Tel Aviv University

A first-of-its-kind study scanned the brains of dozens of politically involved participants while they watched campaign-ads and
speeches by parties from both ends of the political spectrum, just before one of the last rounds of elections.

The participants, half right-wing and half left-wing, were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a method that measures brain
activation.

Surprisingly, it was found that political-dependent differences in the brain response emerged already in early brain regions, such as
regions involved in vision and hearing, and in fact the response in these regions was enough to predict an individual’s political views.

The researchers note that right-wing participants had synchronized brain response (meaning their brain worked in a similar manner)
while they watched the right-wing stimuli, whereas left-wing participants had synchronized brain response (meaning their brain worked
in a similar manner) while they watched the left-wing stimuli. This was true for regions within the sensory, motor, and somatosensory
cortices, which are responsible for vision, hearing, and movement.
The study was led by Noa Katabi, a research student in the lab of Dr. Yaara Yeshurun in the School of Psychological Sciences and the Sagol
School of Neuroscience. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

During the study, participants watched video-clips, including a neutral (in terms of political characteristics) video-clip and different
political campaign-ads and political speeches by politicians from both blocs, Right and Left.

The researchers were surprised to discover widespread partisanship-dependent brain activation and synchronization when Right-wing
individuals watched the videos of their political bloc, or when Left-wing individuals watched the videos of left-wing politician.

Interestingly, the researchers found that such partisanship-dependent differences in brain synchronization was not limited to “higher”
areas of the brain, associated with interpretation and abstract thinking, as was previously found. Rather, these differences occurred
already in regions responsible for sight, hearing and even touch.

Dr. Yeshurun: “The research clearly showed that the more the subjects were politically aligned with a certain group, the more their brain
response was synchronized, including in motor and somatosensory areas, that is, those areas of the brain that are active when we move or
feel things with our senses.

The researchers note that right-wing participants had synchronized brain response (meaning their brain worked in a similar manner) while they watched the right-wing stimuli, whereas left-wing participants had
synchronized brain response (meaning their brain worked in a similar manner) while they watched the left-wing stimuli. Image is in the public domain

“In fact, just by the brain’s response in these primary sensory areas we could tell if a certain individual was left or wight wing. Intriguingly,
it was not necessary to examine the activity in “higher” brain areas – areas that are involved in understanding why a certain character did
something, or what that character thinks and feels – in order to predict participants’ political views, it could even be done by examining an
area of the brain that is responsible for seeing or hearing.”

The researchers think that this surprising finding is due to the fact that the participants they chose were politically involved, and also due
to the timing of the experiment – a few weeks before the elections, when the political atmosphere in Israel was very present and
emotional.

Dr. Yeshurun adds: “This is the first study to show political-dependent brain activity in early sensory and motor areas, and it can be said
that at the most basic brain level, rightists and leftists in Israel literally (and not just metaphorically) don’t see and hear the same things.

“I think that if we try to understand how people who hold opposite political views to ours experience the world,  we might be able to
conduct a slightly more effective public discussion that can hopefully attenuate the current political polarization.”

About this politics and neuroscience research news

Author: Noga Shahar

Source: Tel Aviv University
Contact: Noga Shahar – Tel Aviv University
Image: The image is in the public domain
 Original Research: Closed access.
“Deeper Than You Think: Partisanship-Dependent Brain Responses in Early Sensory and Motor Brain Regions” by Noa Katabi
et al. Journal of Neuroscience

See also

Abstract

Deeper Than You Think: Partisanship-Dependent Brain Responses in Early Sensory and Motor Brain Regions

Recent political polarization has illustrated how individuals with opposing political views often experience ongoing events in markedly
different ways. In this study, we explored the neural mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon.

We conducted functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) scanning of thirty-four right- and left-wing participants (45% females)
watching political videos (e.g., campaign ads and political speeches) just before the elections in Israel. As expected, we observed
significant differences between left- and right-wing participants in their interpretation of the videos’ content.

Furthermore, neuroimaging results revealed partisanship-dependent differences in activation and synchronization in higher-order
regions. Surprisingly, such differences were also revealed in early sensory, motor and somato-sensory regions.

We found that the political content synchronized the responses of primary visual and auditory cortices in a partisanship-dependent
manner. Moreover, right-wing (and not left-wing) individuals’ sensorimotor cortex was involved in processing right-wing (and not left-
wing) political content.

These differences were pronounced to the extent that we could predict political orientation from the early brain-response alone.
Importantly, no such differences were found with respect to neutral content.

Therefore, these results uncover more fundamental neural mechanisms underlying processes of political polarization.

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TAGS # BRAIN RESEARCH # BRAIN SYNCHRONIZATION # NEUROBIOLOGY # NEUROSCIENCE # POL ITICS # PSYCHOLOGY # TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

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