brain areas that regulate political engagement

[scruffy]

Study Reveals Brain Circuits That Drive Political Passion and Intensity - Neuroscience News

A new study has identified specific brain networks that regulate the intensity of political engagement, regardless of ideology.

neurosciencenews.com

If you're politically engaged, you're likely to have an active prefrontal cortex.

On the other hand the amygdala, which regulates fear, tends to prevent you from becoming politically engaged.

 

[toobfreak]

If you're politically engaged, you're likely to have an active prefrontal cortex.
On the other hand the amygdala, which regulates fear, tends to prevent you from becoming politically engaged.

I think of the amygdala as our primitive brain, a brain within a brain, leftover from our development millions of years ago.

 

[scruffy]

Amygdala is involved in attention and the selection of behavior.

While you're right those things are basic to brains, they rise to a new level in humans.

Example: you're taking a lengthy test (like SAT or LSAT/MCAT), and one of the questions seems very difficult. It's the fear portion of the amygdala that tells you to skip it and move on.