Brain scan displays a party bias

Question: When 30 males with strong party identification watched a political debate, their fMRI brain-scans showed high activation in the orbital frontal cortex (emotions), anterior cingulate (conflict resolution), posterior cingulate (conflicts of moral accountability) and afterward, the ventral striatum (reward/pleasure). Can you guess what part of their brains didn't register at all?

Answer: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, most associated with reasoning, says Michael Shermer in Scientific American. "It appears as if partisans work to get the conclusion they want, then massively reinforce themselves for doing so," summed up lead researcher Drew Westen. The implications for law, politics, business are of great concern. Even scientific research can be undercut by ardent theory-holders, despite double-blind studies, replication and peer review.

The villain here is "confirmation bias," where we all judiciously seek out confirming evidence in support of our already existing beliefs while ignoring or reinterpreting disconfirming facts and findings, thus allowing unconscious emotionality to masquerade as inner debate.

Shermer's advice: "Skepticism is the antidote."

Question: Bet you didn't know that the "jook" in jukebox is African-American slang for "dance," that sunglasses date back to 15th-century China where judges wanted to conceal their expressions and that if Jell-O is hooked up to an EEG it registers movements virtually identical to human brain waves, that famed cook Julia Child did intelligence work for the O.S.S. during World War II, that "news" stands for "North, East, West, South" and "tip" for "to insure promptness," and that X's for kisses goes back to ancient days when non-writing signers just marked an "X," then gave it a kiss to show sincerity. Oh, and "hanky panky" traces to the old magician's ploy of using a handkerchief in one hand to distract the audience from noticing what the other hand was doing.

Answer: Now you know, thanks to David Hoffman's book "Who Knew? Things You Didn't Know About Things You Know Well."

Question: Do people understand what a barking dog is trying to "say"?