Conflicted About the War? Here's Why
March 26 -- Why does it seem so much easier for some people to know which course to follow, even if it involves the complex emotions and uncertain outcome of war?
Why are some people able to look at the evidence in support of the war in Iraq and conclude the war is totally justified, while others look at essentially the same evidence and reach the opposite conclusion?
Why do reasonable people disagree?
And why are some people so ambivalent, acting as though they are "of two minds," as the old saying goes?
Maybe because they are. New research by scientists at several institutions indicates that the human brain does not act as a single processing unit, but instead has at least two neural networks that may be either helping or competing with each other as we try to figure out who's right in this deadly struggle.
Separate Networks Making Decisions
Psychologist Kip Smith of Kansas State University did not address indecision about the war in his study, but the preliminary findings of his team indicate that the human cognitive process is far more complex than had been thought. The researchers have identified two separate neural networks, one deliberative and relatively young in our evolutionary development, the other emotional and quite old.
"There is not a single executive decision-making mechanism" in the human brain, Smith says. "We're of at least two minds."
And those minds may not always agree.
This is the first step in a long high-tech process to learn how we make decisions on issues ranging from simple to complex.
"We've just started," Smith says. "This is the first salvo in a whole campaign to find out how this [the decision-making process] works."
The researchers used positron emission tomography to produce images that show where blood is going in the brain. The assumption, Smith says, is blood-flow correlates with high neural activity, so areas receiving an increase in blood are reacting to a stimulus, in this case questions involving risk, gain, loss and ambiguity.
