Disagreement takes a lot of real estate

Yale researchers have devised a way to simultaneously look into the brains of two people while engaging in discussion. What they found would not surprise anyone who found themselves arguing about politics or social issues.

When two people agree, their brain displays a calm synchronicity of activity focused on sensory areas of the brain. However, when they disagree, many other brain regions involved in higher cognitive functions are mobilized because each fights the argument of the other, a Yale-led research team reported in the journal on January 13. Boundaries of human neuroscience.

“Our whole brain is a social processing network,” says senior author Joy Hirsch, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson professor of psychiatry and professor of comparative medicine and neuroscience. “However, it just takes a lot more real estate not to agree than to agree.”

For the study, researchers from Yale and University College London recruited 38 adults who were asked whether or not they agreed with a series of statements such as’ same-sex marriage is a civil right ‘or’ marijuana should be legalized does not become. “After matching pairs based on their answers, the researchers used an imaging technology called functional near-infrared spectroscopy to record their brain activity while conducting face-to-face conversations.

When people agreed, brain activity was harmonious and tended to concentrate on sensory parts of the brain, such as the visual system, presumably in response to their partner’s social cues. However, these disputes in the brain were less active during disputes. Meanwhile, activity increased in the anterior lobes of the brain, home to higher-order executive functions.

“There’s a synchronicity between the brains if we agree,” Hirsch said. “But if we do not agree, disconnect the neural link.”

Understanding how our brains function while we disagree is especially important in a polarized political environment, Hirsch noted.

Undoubtedly, she said, two brains involve a lot of emotional and cognitive resources “like a symphony orchestra playing different music.” Consistently, there is “less cognitive involvement and more social interaction between the brains of the speakers, similar to a musical duet.”