Scanning brains of swing voters re candidates

[Adelante]

This is interesting. Please note I will post only the first paragraph related to each of the top three Dems, so read through the link for the rest, there's more to it than this.

In anticipation of the 2008 presidential election, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to watch the brains of a group of swing voters as they responded to the leading presidential candidates. Our results reveal some voter impressions on which this election might well turn.

Our 20 subjects -- registered voters who stated that they were open to choosing a candidate from either party next November -- included 10 men and 10 women. In late summer, we asked them to answer a list of questions about their political preferences and then observed their brain activity for nearly an hour in the scanner at the Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Afterward, each subject filled out a second questionnaire.

-snip

2 Emotions about Hillary Clinton are mixed. Voters who rated Clinton unfavorably on their questionnaire appeared not entirely comfortable with their assessment. When viewing images of her, these voters exhibited significant activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, an emotional center of the brain that is aroused when a person feels compelled to act in two different ways but must choose one. It looked as if they were battling unacknowledged impulses to like Clinton.

7 John Edwards has promise -- and a problem. When looking at pictures of Edwards, subjects who had rated him low on the thermometer scale showed activity in the insula, an area associated with disgust and other negative feelings. This suggests that swing voters' negative emotions toward Edwards can be quite powerful.

8 Barack Obama and John McCain have work to do. The scans taken while subjects viewed the first set of photos and the videos of McCain and Obama indicated a notable lack of any powerful reactions, positive or negative. The male subjects showed some interest in McCain while looking at still photos, but their engagement fell off after they watched him on videotape. Women remained unengaged throughout the session.

Read Entire Article:

http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/308857.html

[Teaser]

1. I'm a neuroscientist. This is bullshit.

Little more than high energy phrenology.

[Adelante]

2. Thanks, I don't know anything about it really

I just found it interesting reading.

[Teaser]

3. I'm sure such a study could be done scientifically

But the controls in this case are laughable.

[rasputin1952]

4. "high energy phrenology"...

:D

I like that!

It never ceases to amaze me that somehow, a new "crystal ball" shows up w/each generation of technology. One would think that the link between this, tossing chicken bones on a table, or gazing at a boing pot of entrails would be somewhat obvious.

I have to admit though, there is something in just reading things like this that are just a little enticing, if only for the value in humor or to get a better grip as to what lengths some will go to to exploit a valid scientific process.

:D

[hlthe2b]

5. So the bran scans showed them conflicted and therefore...

UNDECIDED....LOL

:sarcasm: