Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
8
pubmed:dateCreated
2011-4-25
pubmed:abstractText
Substantial differences exist in the cognitive styles of liberals and conservatives on psychological measures. Variability in political attitudes reflects genetic influences and their interaction with environmental factors. Recent work has shown a correlation between liberalism and conflict-related activity measured by event-related potentials originating in the anterior cingulate cortex. Here we show that this functional correlate of political attitudes has a counterpart in brain structure. In a large sample of young adults, we related self-reported political attitudes to gray matter volume using structural MRI. We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala. These results were replicated in an independent sample of additional participants. Our findings extend previous observations that political attitudes reflect differences in self-regulatory conflict monitoring and recognition of emotional faces by showing that such attitudes are reflected in human brain structure. Although our data do not determine whether these regions play a causal role in the formation of political attitudes, they converge with previous work to suggest a possible link between brain structure and psychological mechanisms that mediate political attitudes.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:commentsCorrections
http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-10647008, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-10716738, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-10860804, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-11239442, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-12784934, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-14568482, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-14642287, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-14737157, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-15483594, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-16783368, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-16791142, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-17032067, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-17620621, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-17680940, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-17761438, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-17828253, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-19820707, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-19966327, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-20150341, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-20727757, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-20847276, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-7666173, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/21474316-9735909
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Apr
pubmed:issn
1879-0445
pubmed:author
pubmed:copyrightInfo
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:day
26
pubmed:volume
21
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
677-80
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2011
pubmed:articleTitle
Political orientations are correlated with brain structure in young adults.
pubmed:affiliation
University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK. r.kanai@ucl.ac.uk
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't