Obama Brain Study: Activity Map Highlights What Republicans and Democrats Think

Maybe you're a lefty or a righty. Or maybe you're one of those moderate people. Either way, a new Obama brain study is helping politically charged enthusiasts figure out what makes them tick inside the voting booths.

According to the information for the study released yesterday, this stuff could potentially provide an in-depth look at what motivates Republicans and Democrats alike when they're casting their ballots.

If successful, the Brain Activity Map Project will bring the same level of benefits to health and science research as the human genome project did for genetic research, according to reports.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted the economic effects of the gene mapping project. "'Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy - every dollar,'"he said. Commentators are suggesting the Human Brain Map Project could return similar fiscal benefits.

According to LiveScience, the study involved 35 men and 47 women, scattered across Republican and Democratic lines.

Researchers measured risk-taking behavior in areas like gambling and found no difference, but their discovery when it came to political persuasion was a bit more compelling.

This Obama brain study revealed that while not-political risks were analogously likely, "brain processed risk worked differently between the groups, with Republicans showing more activity in an area linked with reward, fear and risky decisions and Democrats showing more activity in a spot related to processing emotion and internal body cues."

Of the results, Darren Schreiber of the University of Exeter (where the Obama brain study was carried out) said the following in a statement: "The ability to accurately predict party politics using only brain activity while gambling suggests that investigating basic neural differences between voters may provide us with more powerful insights than the traditional tools of political science."

And interestingly enough, researchers were able to predict a person's political party accurately by examining their brain function 82.9 percent of the time.

But wait. It gets better. The Obama administration is planning on setting over $3 billion aside over a period of 10 years to study the brain with a brain activity map. 

According to The New York Times, the Brain Activity Map would be a collaboration between federal agencies, private foundations and leading scientists.

Advocates for the project hope that research into the brain's neuron's can produce insights to help treat and understand mental illness. However, others have openly critizied the new study as a waste of money and focus. 

It might be a no-brainer for some, but for others, this could mean big changes.