When a Boston Terrier is in the White House!

(yes,I'm sure Bo is a wonderful pup)

Cute picture, and no, I doubt Bo will ever end up on the roof of a car.

It's something the wingnuts can't decipher or understand. That's why their so easily fooled by the wingnut media.

And it's just another one of those distinctions the ACC is instrumental in.

I've occasionally sent it as referring to anthropogenic climate change, although AGW (anthropogenic global warming) is more common.

As a UNC alumnus, I know that it also means one of the country's most prestigious college basketball conferences (bye-bye Duke, snicker snicker).

"Anterior Cingulate Cortex". It's the region of the brain where information is reconciled primary to and during processing by the pre-frontal cortex. It has a role in 'recognition' and 'empathy' as well as a whole host of other processes. It's almost like a 'pre-decision-maker' when it comes to evaluating environment and interactions.

Racists and bigots tend to have a low-functioning or under-utilized ACC. There are several stages where an interaction is dealt with before it even makes it to the PFC. The PFC is very slow, therefore our survival depended on our having a 'ready to go' response mechanism when confronted with any given situation. The hippocampus, thalamus, cortex, and hypothalamus are the first line of processing. From there we get 'snap' decisions and 'fight or flight' responses. The ACC doesn't get involved until an interaction appears 'safe'. The problem is, if the ACC cannot reconcile the 'different from me' with 'safe interaction', then the subject is suspended just 'above' a fight or flight response.

In other words, 'fear'.

The person with a functioning ACC will see the clear case that there is no 'danger' merely from someone who is 'different' and will tend not to care as much about those superficial differences. The person with the low functioning ACC will dwell on those differences and harbor suspicion.

So I'm generally referring to a primitive throwback of neurology that makes a large percent of the population highly susceptible to fear-based propaganda like Faux Noise.

Sorry for the lengthy explanation.

The Wikipedia article about ACC has a section on "Role in political orientation" that confirms your statement: "A widely publicized study by the University College London demonstrated a correlation between larger development of the ACC and left political orientation versus larger development of the amygdala in right political orientation[22]."

The article doesn't specifically mention fear, though. Is it well established in the field that there is such a link?

Some regions in the brain work together, like Broca's and Werneke's areas. When one works, the other usually goes to work too. Some play 'tug-o-war' like the amygdala and hypothalamus.

The ACC does play a function in dealing with fear, but we're not exactly sure how. It is my own notion that the better the function of the ACC, the less likely one is to 'be afraid' of a given set of circumstances. But it certainly goes to work when there is something to 'be afraid of'. I believe that it's role changes once a 'fight or flight' situation is realized because now it's job goes from "Getting a feel" for the static situation to "help find a solution" to a dynamic one.

Have you ever just "had a feel" for a situation you were in? The ACC was, in part, responsible for that.

Socks Clinton was the cutest and best WH pet ever!

Socks was a fightin' dude before he settled down to the easy life.

And its birth certificate says Bo was born in Portugal.

Pictures like this always make me smile.

Bo won't be offended!

Very sweet!

No matter how bad your day is, the greeting is always there to look forward to. I'm delighted the Obama's became a pet owning family.