title: The neural bases for devaluing radical political statements revealed by penetrating traumatic brain injury.
abstract: Given the determinant role of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in valuation, we examined whether vmPFC lesions also modulate how people scale political beliefs. Patients with penetrating traumatic brain injury (pTBI; N = 102) and healthy controls (HCs; N = 31) were tested on the political belief task, where they rated 75 statements expressing political opinions concerned with welfare, economy, political involvement, civil rights, war and security. Each statement was rated for level of agreement and scaled along three dimensions: radicalism, individualism and conservatism. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) analysis showed that diminished scores for the radicalism dimension (i.e. statements were rated as less radical than the norms) were associated with lesions in bilateral vmPFC. After dividing the pTBI patients into three groups, according to lesion location (i.e. vmPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [dlPFC] and parietal cortex), we found that the vmPFC, but not the dlPFC, group had reduced radicalism scores compared with parietal and HC groups. These findings highlight the crucial role of the vmPFC in appropriately valuing political behaviors and may explain certain inappropriate social judgments observed in patients with vmPFC lesions.
authors: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA, irene.cristofori@northwestern.edu.
authors: Irene
authors: I
authors: Cristofori
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, 00185, Italy, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, 00179, Italy.
authors: Vanda
authors: V
authors: Viola
authors: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
authors: Aileen
authors: A
authors: Chau
authors: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
authors: Wanting
authors: W
authors: Zhong
authors: Molecular Neuroscience Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA, Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA, and.
authors: Frank
authors: F
authors: Krueger
authors: Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK.
authors: Giovanna
authors: G
authors: Zamboni
authors: Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Brain Injury Research, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.
authors: Jordan
authors: J
authors: Grafman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D020197:Head Injuries, Penetrating / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008889:Military Personnel; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011057:Politics; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000293:injuries; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: political beliefs; radicalism; traumatic brain injury; ventromedial prefrontal cortex; voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping
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