The Political Brain - Chapter 2: "Rational Minds, Irrational Campaigns"

The second chapter about this book talks about an idea that is at first very counter-intuitive but seems to make more sense as the chapter progresses: the notion of logic and a dispassionate state of mind. Or in this case, the lack thereof. Try thinking about the chapter title, “Rational Minds, Irrational Campaigns.”

Public opinion is very important to consider. Walter Lippmann first used the term in 1922 to describe conflicting beliefs- “About what is happening in the economy, the world, and laws/policy-making- held by a population that generally lacks the firsthand experience and expertise to know what is truly happening.” Because of public opinion, voters are more subjective to issues towards which they may feel impartial. They may feel like they have a moral obligation to vote for a particular candidate instead of making their own personal choice themselves. Therefore, as explained in my first post on this book, it is more advantageous to run with passion and empathy along with logic.

Author Drew Westen describes the case of a voting coal miner. He logically compares Bush’s stance on certain issues compared to John Kerry’s stance. He ranks their stance on issues like terrorism, social security, jobs, the economy, etc. on a scale from 1 to 5 (if +3 for one candidate, -3 for the other candidate). After doing some multiplication and simple addition, he arrives at a score of 41 for Kerry and -39 for Bush. With the 80 point difference, the choice should be clear. However, Westen states that only those with a serious brain damage vote like this. And he’s right. For the neuroscientists, damage to your frontal lobes affects your emotional decision-making.

In a debate with Gore and Bush, Gore makes a logical argument involving Medicare and facts and figures. Logically and technically, Bush would have been defeated. However, with some hand-waving and criticizing Gore for using numbers like a “human calculator,” Bush won that point of the debate emotionally.

This is why emotion wins over logic with respect to public opinion. It’s about how people make their voters feel rather than imparting pure logic with a lack of emotion. Leaders who act confidently and have excellent public speaking skills are probably more ideal for holding office. Hopefully this book will go into more detail on what other factors make a person more likable and favorable with respect to public opinion.

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"The Political Brain" - Chapter 1: Winning States of Mind

I have decided to tackle a new book that delves into the world of politics- specifically US Politics - and the role of emotion. Why is it that statistically most Americans agree with Democrats and vote for Republicans? 

Author Drew Westen attempts to answer this question. The main idea behind this book is that "the states that determine elections are really the voters' states of mind." The central thesis behind this book is that "the vision of mind that has captured the imagination of philosophers, cognitive scientists, economists, and political scientists...bears no relation to how the mind and brain actually work.”

This first chapter illustrates an example between two political videos of Bill Clinton and John Kerry. In short, many people (a.k.a. potential U.S. voters) saw the Kerry video as very effective but just “not relatable enough.” Bill Clinton later won the election. Why? Well Kerry’s video was about how great of a leader he was, but he seemed to distance himself from his potential voters. How could they vote for someone who was so unlike them and who possibly wouldn’t be able to represent them well? Of course, “them” is an extremely broad term. Kerry additionally had little to no facial expression in his campaign video and instead looked “serious and dour.” Clinton, on the other hand, one of the most intellectual people to ever take office in the West Wing, did not mention his alma mater and instead appealed to his voters by being more emotional in his video. This is what eventually won him the presidential election.

In the rest of this book, I hope to read more examples about this notion of “emotion” playing a large role in politics (both state and national). In all, this book would appeal to people who love politics, watch “House of Cards”, love neuroscience, or are psychologists. 

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CYBCYL Chapter 11 – Looking Into Memory and Temper: The Temporal Lobes

The temporal lobes have “largely gone unnoticed in human psychology,” according to Amen. In fact, there has been little to no discussion on them in psychiatric journals However, using Amen’s brain imaging, he has found that the temporal lobes play an important part in our learning, socializations, emotional stability, and memory. Additionally, there is one lobe on each side of the brain, the dominant side (left), and the nondominant side (the right). The dominant side is responsible for: 

• Understanding and processing language
• Short-term and long-term memory
• Auditory learning
• Retrieval of words
• Complex memories
• Visual and auditory processing
• Emotional stability

The nondominant side is primarily responsible for: 

• Recognizing facial expressions
• Decoding vocal intonation
• Rhythm
• Music
• Visual learning

 Language is a very important function of the temporal lobes. There is a specific part, called Wernicke’s area, in the dominant side responsible for written and spoken language. In relating to the connection of neurons in the brain, each language has a particular “node” of neurons which connect to one another well per language. For individuals who know more than one language, there are multiple “nodes” in this region.

Since these lobes have a variety of functions, there are likewise many problems associated with them. Some common to both are:

• Memory problems
• Amnesia
• Anxiety for no reason
• Feeling of déjà vu, jamais vu, or presque vu
• Periods of spaciness or confusion
• Seizures

Amen lists many more problems on the temporal lobes, which take up an entire page. I had no idea that these “armchairs” of the brain are responsible for so many functions.

Since I know many people who can relate to the problems that this chapter describes, I am eager to see what “remedies” Amen has in store. It seems, from this chapter, that many of the problems with the temporal lobes are involved with memory and aggressiveness. Again, please follow the checklist provided in this chapter to see if you may have a problem with your temporal lobes.

Amen’s overall progression in this book has been quite significant, and even someone with little to no prior knowledge of the brain can understand if and where their problems lie and how they can be fixed. That is what makes this book so appealing. Moreover, someone can have only a minor problem in a certain area (or no problem at all), and yet Amen’s prescriptions would work excellently. Even though some might seem trivial, they are extremely effective (In fact, I have tried a few myself). So even average, brain-healthy people can start their journey to improving themselves and changing their lives.

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CYBCYL Chapter 10 – Getting Unstuck: Cingulate System Prescriptions

How can one heal deep cingulate system problems?

First, I advise readers to determine if they may have a problem using Amen’s provided checklist in Chapter 9. Then start to follow the prescriptions below. You do not have to have a problem to use these prescriptions.

Cingulate System Prescription 1: Notice When You’re Stuck, Distract Yourself, and Come Back to the Problem Later. The first step is to be aware that you have a problem, especially with circular or looping thoughts. This is what can enable you to distract yourself from these (usually harmful) thoughts and then come back to them later. Just get up and literally do something else.

Cingulate System Prescription 2: Think Through Answers Before Automatically Saying No. -As previously mentioned, people with a cingulate system problem are very likely to be inflexible and unable to cooperate with other people. Therefore, it is vital that these people work to fix this problem. Amen suggests to take a deep breath, and during that deep breath, consider what saying no will mean. This is especially important when considering relationships with significant others.

Cingulate System Prescription 3: Write Out Options And Solutions When You Feel Stuck. This one, like the others, is very self-explanatory. First you have to write out the thought. Then make a list of things you can do about the worrying thought. Then finally make a list of things you cannot do about the worrying thought. This is a very simple technique that can help ease the tension.

These are only some of the main prescriptions that can help your cingulate system. The book delves into many others which involve making paradoxical requests and Amen’s own prayer that he calls the “serenity prayer.” Please try to buy this book and see for yourself.

I felt that this chapter was especially important since the cingulate system is responsible for common problems, many of which we have every day. Again, as I mentioned before, you don’t have to have a problem with the cingulate system to take advantage of Amen’s “prescriptions.” Many of these problems are extremely commonplace, and by following his techniques, you can still change your life. I also immediately thought about how many people I know fit the symptoms of having a problem in their cingulate system. From chapters 9 and this chapter, however, it is easy for people to recognize that first, they have a problem and second, they can fix it. In this way, I hope that many other chapter will continue this trend of identifying, attacking, and ultimately, improving problems in your brain and in your life.

All in all, this book is very unique in that it talk about how one can influence change in their behavior through. After a particular system in the brain is discussed, the subsequent chapter talks about how people can positively influence that system which essentially changes them for the better (hence the title “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life”).

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CYBCYL Chapter 9 – Looking into Worry and Obsessiveness: The Cingulate System

This chapter delves into the role of the cingulate system in the brain. It is what enables to people to be flexible when considering other peoples’ ideas and viewpoints. Therefore, problems with this system would likely make someone inflexible and unable to cooperate with others. The cingulate system has many other functions including:

• Ability to shift attention
• Cognitive flexibility 
• adaptability
• movement from idea to idea
• ability to see options
• ability to cooperate
• ability to “go with the flow”

The chapter showed that in SPECT scans, brains that were more overactive in the cingulate area were correlated with subjects’ worrying as well as anger and obsessiveness. If you read my post in Chapter 2, you may remember that I talked about the boy who had been obsessed with taking out his teeth for the “tooth fairy.” Through a SPECT scan, it was later determined that this way because of a problem in his cingulate system. What this means is that when this system is overexcited, our perspective of the outside world changes (in this case, we become more inflexible and over-attached to certain things). In this chapter, Amen also focuses on the connection between obsessive-compulsive disorder and the cingulate system (which is very intuitive to consider). Please read this chapter for further information.

This chapter is very significant towards my understanding of human behavior. I did not know how or why certain people were more inflexible than others and why some people were known as “constant worriers.” I also did not know where OCD affected the brain and how it developed in a child and adult. However, this chapter answers all those questions.

The cingulate system is one of the most important parts of our brains, especially in determining human behavior. It was very interesting to read about how all the functions listed above were linked in some way, and I have seen that the key to understanding comes from knowing the key functions of the cingulate system. In my honest opinion, society may favor those who are very flexible and those who can tolerate plans changing suddenly at the last minute. I look forward to reading about some of Amen’s prescriptions for the cingulate system. 

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CYBCYL Chapter 5 – Looking Into Anxiety and Fear: The Basal Ganglia

This chapter delves into the role of the basal ganglia in our daily lives. They are a set of large structures toward the center of the brain that surround the basal ganglia system. The basal ganglia are mainly associated with integrating feeling, thoughts, and movement and helping to shift and smooth motor behavior. People with basal ganglia problems are prone to anxiety attacks and very low motivation. As for the functions of the basal ganglia, there are many more, including:

• Integrating feeling and movement
• Shifting and smoothing fine motor behavior
• Suppressing unwanted motor behaviors
• Setting the body’s idle speed or anxiety level
• Enhancing motivation
• Mediating pleasure/ecstasy

The basal ganglia is responsible for the decision/initiation to move. Often when a situation is too shocking to witness, an individual may literally be unable to move (frozen in space). Additionally, the basal ganglia are involved in suppressing unwanted motor activity. When people have abnormalities in this area, they are often prone to voice or vocal tics. The basal ganglia are also involved in anxiety signaling, which is one of the main things that Amen stresses in this chapter. Overactive basal ganglionic activity can be indicative of over-anxiety, as a certain patient case describes. It may be responsible for Tourette’s syndrome as well. Heightened basal ganglia activity may even lead to excessive motivational behavior (“workaholics”). Often these people work intense hours during the week and are very uncomfortable with the unstructured and restless period over the weekend.

The basal ganglia are very interesting to study. I did not know that they are what enables you to “choose”, per se, what action to conduct (when there are many actions in your mind). I am very interested to read Amen’s prescrtiptions for the problems with this system. It is also very curious to see that some of the problems with the basal ganglia resemble drug addictions under a brain scan. For instance, intense romantic love resembles a cocaine-like effect on the brain, and much dopamine is released in the basal ganglia.

This descriptive chapter is meant to introduce the reader to this part of the system, tell what it is responsible for, and list the problems associated with that part. Again, since this is such an interesting part of the brain, I look forward to reading about how to fix the problems associated with it. I recommend other readers to follow the helpful checklist that Amen provides in this chapter to find out if you have certain problems in the basal ganglia of your brain.

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CYBCYL Chapter 2 – Carving Knifes and Tooth Fairies: A Prelude to the Brain and Behavior

Here is where the author, Dr. Daniel Amen, begins to outline the basis for this book. Essentially, the brain is connected to our lives; everything we perceive and everything we think about originates and ends in the brain. Additionally, as mentioned in Chapter 1, SPECT scanning (like fMRI and other scans) is a way to glimpse the brain in all its glory. In fact, Amen states that he felt “naked” the first time he saw his own scan due to how it could act as a potential “mind-reader”.

More into the chapter, some personal cases are mentioned, each of which involve a particular disorder in a specific part of the brain. Amen makes these cases to show the reader an instance of the disorder, where it would likely be located, and how the problem was treated. For instance, in the title of this chapter, “tooth fairies” refers to a young child who unfortunately had a disorder which involved him constantly attempting to pull out his teeth just to get money from the “tooth fairy”. The “carving knives” portion involves a patient whose life went downhill after a car accident left him with a minor concussion. He became so paranoid that he waited behind the door to attempt to kill his roommate with a butcher’s knife. Thankfully, due to Amen’s treatment, both problems (each involving certain parts of the brain) were fully resolved within weeks.

As a reader, I am definitely curious about the techniques that Amen discusses in this chapter. Of course, he is not referring to taking medication for every problem listed, but rather these everyday “prescriptions” (which at first glance may seem trivial but are actually more important than one may think). He will be discussing 5 systems of the brain and how they can help us “understand ourselves and others.” After each descriptive chapter, the chapter following it will describe Amen’s techniques/prescriptions to help deal with these problems practically and effectively.

Yes, SPECT scans will likely be important in upcoming chapters. Honestly, I am still curious (perhaps skeptical?) about their efficacy, but nonetheless, learning about them may eventually answer my question on whether or not I want to see inside my own brain. Amen’s approach is one that is, in my opinion, very much overlooked by society. How often do we consider someone’s behavior a complete product of his or her own environmental conditioning? Many people I know well seem to fit (at least partially) Amen’s patient descriptions, so could it potentially mean that they have a problem with their brains? Of course, it is silly to completely base everything off of this “brain-centric” idea, but it is still a thought. Nevertheless, I begin my journey of the human brain in Chapter 3.

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