Neuroethics: The Brain and Political Beliefs

Article first published as Brain Science and Political Belief on Technorati.


Brain science is providing some important insights into the mechanisms involved in a variety of beliefs including political, religious and moral beliefs. Dr. Jordan Grafman, Ph.D. currently with the Kessler Foundation has led some of the key research initiatives in this area of brain research. He recently presented at the May, 2011 Warren Frontiers in Neuroscience lecture series in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I previously posted a summary of work relevant to the brain science and moral beliefs and a separate post on religious beliefs. Here are some of the key points from his presentation related to political beliefs and relevant published research manuscripts.

A important starting point in understanding how the brain processes political beliefs is to discover key elements of these beliefs. The classical description of political beliefs defines individuals long a single criterion domain, conservative to liberal. But statistical modeling of large numbers of individuals demonstrates three key domains for political belief. These domains appear somewhat independent of each other and appear to engage different brain neural circuits. The three domains and localized areas the brain involved include:

• individualism--medial prefrontal cortex and the temperoparietal junction
• conservatism-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
• radicalism-ventral striatum and posterior cingulate

So how does brain circuitry differ between those who are interested in politics compared to those with little interest in the area? Grafman while at his previous NIH position and colleagues from Italy as well as George Mason University in the U.S. examined this question in a series of 25 subjects using functional magnetic imaging scanning technology.

Subjects in the scanner were asked to agree or disagree with a variety of political opinions. Subjects who were interested in politics showed significantly more activation of the brains regions in the amygdala and ventral striatum. Subjects disinterested in politics showed limited activations in these regions regardless of the content of religious beliefs encountered.

The amygdala has been demonstrated to be an important region for processing both positive and negative emotional stimuli. The ventral striatum appears to be a key region in processing reward and positive affect.

The research suggests those with strong political interests, i.e. "political junkies" engage brain circuits involved in emotional and reward reinforcement. Similar circuits appear to be engaged in other individuals by chemical as well and specific environmental stimuli. For example, similar circuits may be activated by religious stimuli in those with strong religious beliefs.

It is unknown exactly how the brain influences each individuals selection of an area of interest and engagement. We do not know why one individual is drawn to a field of technical interest, i.e. computer science rather than a field of social interest such as politics.

But once an individual establishes strong political interest and a strong political belief system brain circuitry effects develop. These circuits appear to not be specific to politics but specific to circuits controlling emotional engagement and reward reinforcement.

Future brain science research is likely to further discover the mechanisms involved in political belief development and maintenance. An ethical challenge is likely to emerge on how these discoveries are used by political parties to influence voter preferences and voter engagement.

Link to Dr. Grafman's website related to his research on traumatic brain injury at the Kessler Foundation.

Zamboni G, Gozzi M, Krueger F, Duhamel JR, Sirigu A, & Grafman J (2009). Individualism, conservatism, and radicalism as criteria for processing political beliefs: a parametric fMRI study. Social neuroscience, 4 (5), 367-83 PMID: 19562629


Gozzi M, Zamboni G, Krueger F, & Grafman J (2010). Interest in politics modulates neural activity in the amygdala and ventral striatum. Human brain mapping, 31 (11), 1763-71 PMID: 20162603


Photo of African Elephant, the symbol of U.S. Republican Party from author's private family collection by photographer Sarah Yates.

Neuroethics: The Brain and Moral Beliefs

Jerome Grafman, Ph.D. presented the May 2011 Warren Frontiers in Neuroscience lecture “Brain Regions Supporting the Establishment of Human Beliefs” in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I have typically summarized these lectures in a single Brain Posts blog posting.  But given the broad character of this presentation, I will break my summary into three parts based on the sections in the presentation: moral beliefs, religious beliefs and political beliefs.  Along with the lecture highlights, I will review relevant research manuscripts by Dr. Grafman and his research team.

A first step in studying concepts as abstract as morality is to define key components or factors within moral beliefs.  This is a common approach applicable to also religious and political beliefs.  Dr. Grafman prefers a more data driven approach to this task, rather than coming from a theoretical perspective.  The Moral Sentiment Task is a 98-item interview where subjects are given a scenario and asked to pick one of four responses that describes the feeling they would experience in that situation.  Using large population survey data, responses in this interview can be assigned to one of two sentiments:

Prosocial sentiments

• embarrassment 
• pity
• guilt

Critical sentiments

• anger
• disgust

In a study with Jorge Moll and colleagues, Grafman examined a series of patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) using PET imaging and the Moral Sentiment Task.  Patients with FTD commonly exhibit impairment in social behaviors such as acting inappropriately (misjudge the social appropriateness of a behavior).  This socially inappropriate behavior commonly causes caregiver embarrassment and makes FTD often more difficult to manage than Alzheimer’s dementia.  Since the frontal lobe is felt to contribute to moral beliefs and judgment, a disease variably affecting the frontal lobe is likely to provide information about the effect of deficits in specific regions.

Patients with FTD were recruited for a study of the relationship between hypoactivation of specific brain regions with impairment in making accurate choices in the Moral Sentiment test.  As expected FTD, patients showed widespread decreased frontal lobe glucose utilization compared to controls.  In a correlational analysis, the following results were noted:

• Decreased glucose utilization in the medial frontopolar cortex correlated with reduced prosocial sentiment
• Decreased glucose utilization in the septum also correlated with impaired prosocial sentiment
• Decreased glucose utilization in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala correlated with reduced critical sentiment scores

In a review in the Annual Review of Neuroscience, Forbes and Grafman summarize the role of the prefrontal cortex in social cognition and moral judgment.  They note that there is significant overlap between processes involved in social cognition and moral judgment.  Social cognition has been described as the encoding, storage, retrieval and processing in the brain of information related to other members of the species. 

Elements of social cognition function can be implicit processes (occurring rapidly with little cognitive effort and outside conscious awareness) or explicit processes (deliberate, cognitively taxing and consciously accessible).  Implicit social cognition appears to have evolved earlier and is linked to the posterior cortex and subcortical regions.  Explicit social cognition evolved later and relies heavily on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). 

The prefrontal cortex appears to be a key area involved in making moral judgments.  Using fMRI brain PFC regions activate with processing a moral challenge.  Interestingly, the specific region of PFC involved in making a decision appears to be separate for making a decision on an impersonal moral dilemma (whether to flip a trolley track switch that will save five lives but lead to the death of one other person) or a personal moral dilemma (whether to smother your own crying baby if doing so would being detected by oppositional soldiers who will kill you and many other individuals).

Forbes and Grafman note in the conclusion of their review that “social interactions and judgments of humans have been based on evolutionary pressures and environmental and social contingencies”.  This evolution is continuing and they wonder if more impersonal world of advances such as Facebook and text messaging at a young age might drive the brain systems towards more “immediate results and gratification”.  Nevertheless, the emerging field of social neuroscience is likely to play a key role in better understanding neuroanatomical, genetic and environmental influences that effect our social development and the moral judgment we make.


Screen shot of prefrontal cortex from 3D Brain by Yates Photography.

In the next post, I will summarize research related to the brain and religious beliefs.  Dr. Grafman’s proposes an answer to the question “Is there a God spot in the brain?”

Moll J, Zahn R, de Oliveira-Souza R, Bramati IE, Krueger F, Tura B, Cavanagh AL, & Grafman J (2011). Impairment of prosocial sentiments is associated with frontopolar and septal damage in frontotemporal dementia. NeuroImage, 54 (2), 1735-42 PMID: 20728544


Forbes, C., & Grafman, J. (2010). The Role of the Human Prefrontal Cortex in Social Cognition and Moral Judgment Annual Review of Neuroscience, 33 (1), 299-324 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-060909-153230