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President’s Letter

The Impact of Neurobiology on
Unity and Harmony

OBy John R. Allbert, MD matter in the right amygdala (where the brain processes potential signals
ne of the purposes of the Medical Society mentioned in for threat and fear), and it is more active in this area of the brain during
the MCMS position statement is “to provide a forum for risk-taking tasks. Liberals, on the other hand, show more activity in the
its members so that by timely meetings and full, frank left posterior insula, the location for the expression of interpersonal trust.
interchanges of views, they may make effective the There also are genetic differences, such as the genes that code for certain
opinions of the profession in scientific, legislative and public health affairs; dopamine receptors. The DRD4 exon II tandem repeat on chromosome
secure intelligent unity and harmony in every phase of their work.” I am 11 determines the sensitivity to dopamine. Conservatives, it turns out,
honored to serve this year as the president of Mecklenburg County Medical tend to have only two copies for the 4-repeat allele and liberals have the
Society and strongly believe our county medical society is one of the 7R+ tandem repeat.
main reasons patients in our community have access to the best quality
of medical care in the country. That said, there is much work to do in Brain&Behavior HighConservatism High Liberalism
maintaining environments that maximize the quality of our physician work Affiliation
life — whether we are independent or employed. One component of this is
physician advocacy, particularly with local and state government. To be the Personality Stability, opposition to change Novelty
most effective, we must “secure intelligent unity and harmony,” which, as Conformity Unconventional: self-expression
we all know, can be very difficult. Tradition New experiences and sensations
Order, structure and closure Flexibility and variability
When I went through catechism at the age of 13, my minister told us Authority Tolerance for uncertainty
that to believe in evolution was a sin. Even at that young age, I already Conscientiousness Empathy
had a love of science. This line of teaching was so different to what I
knew to be true that I left the church and didn’t return until I was in Cognitive Negativity bias No clear bias
my 30s. A few years ago, a highly educated CEO of a company with Greater sensitivity to threat or loss Greater sensitivity to cues for
more than 250 employees told me it was an insult to God to say humans Physiological altering habitual response patterns
evolved from the same ancestor as a chimpanzee. My first thought was, Neuroimaging Greater activation of the right Greater conflict-related anterior
“How in the 21st century can someone be so ignorant?” However, what amygdala cingulate cortex activity
was most shocking was that we grew up going to the same church and Increased gray matter volume in right Increased gray matter volume in
had the same parents. That’s right, my own brother. I love and admire amygdala and other right anterior anterior cingulate cortex
him in so many ways, and yet he has different theological and political structures
views from me. How can this be?
Reference: Mendez M, J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, 2017;29:86.
If you ever have taken a personality test like Myers Briggs with a
group of people and compared the results, you can see numerically It is easy to feel people who have different views from us are not very
how different people are. You learn that, as an example, there are strong intelligent, and with “education” they can be enlightened. Hopefully,
introverts and strong extroverts and everything in between. You also we all now realize this is, for the most part, not true. Highly intelligent
come to realize your personality type has very little to do with your and educated people can disagree, and we cannot entirely blame it on
education, your parents’ personality type, or your ability to find success. parents’ political beliefs, where they grew up, or what news channel they
It turns out that political views can be viewed in much the same way. watch. It is now apparent our views are significantly influenced by how
one’s brain interprets the environment. We are who we are. That is not
Political ideology is the philosophy that guides the power to influence to say that people don’t change. Political views are dynamic. In times of
the social and economic behavior of others and ranges from promoting uncertainty, like after 9/11, the political views of a population shift to a
the status quo and tradition to favoring change. Based on personality more conservative direction, while, when the economy is growing and
differences, genetic information and neuroimaging studies, and the the unemployment is low, a community tends to become more liberal.
effects of brain disease, neurobiological factors mediate where people
fall on the conservative–liberal axis. Conservatives, as you might expect, The last thought I would like to leave with you is this: As physicians,
for the most part prefer stability, tradition, structure and conformity. we should do our best to find unity and harmony as we advocate for our
Liberals prefer novelty, new experiences, tolerance for uncertainty and patients. I believe it’s fine to discuss politics and religion … but do so
self-expression. As an example, conservatives prefer to go to restaurants with a specific purpose. Our bonds as physicians can become stronger
they know, and they tend to prefer meat and potatoes. Liberals, on the by simply listening to how others feel about a controversial topic and
other hand, are more likely to go to new restaurants and prefer ethnic understanding there is a very strong neurobiological reason why they
food. Conservatives prefer more realistic paintings and sculptures, while may think differently than we do. We can respect viewpoints without
while liberals tend to prefer abstract art. feeling the need to change them.

Neuroimaging studies show that conservatives have greater gray Respectfully yours,

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