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Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field that utilizes the complementary insights and approaches of neuroscience and social science to analyze social and affective aspects of human behavior. We like to think of ourselves as mythic individualists but we are fundamentally a social species. As a social species, Homo Sapiens create emergent organizations beyond the individual - structures that range from dyads, families, and groups to cities, civilizations, and cultures. These emergent structures evolved hand in hand with neural and hormonal mechanisms to support them because the consequent social behaviors helped these organisms survive, reproduce, and care for offspring sufficiently long that they too survived to reproduce. Social neuroscience represents an interdisciplinary approach devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behavior and to using biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social processes and behavior. The term "social neuroscience" can be traced to an article by John Cacioppo and Gary Berntson published in the American Psychologist in 1992.¹ Still a young field, social neuroscience is closely related to affective neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience, focusing on how the brain mediates social interactions.

Overview

Social neuroscience investigates the biological mechanisms that underlie social processes and behavior, widely considered one of the major problem areas for the neurosciences in the 21st century, and applies concepts and methods of biology to develop theories of social processes and behavior in the social and behavioral sciences. Social neuroscience capitalizes on biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social behavior, and it uses social and behavioral constructs and data to inform and refine theories of neural organization and function.²

Throughout most of the 20th century, social and biological explanations were widely viewed as incompatible. But advances in recent years have led to the development of a new approach synthesized from the social and biological sciences. The new field of social neuroscience emphasizes the complementary relationship between the different levels of organization spanning the social and biological domains (e.g., molecular, cellular, system, person, relational, collective, societal) and the use of multi-level analyses to foster understanding of the mechanisms underlying the human mind and behavior.

A variety of techniques are used in social neuroscience to investigate the confluence of neural and social processes, including Functional MRI, Transcranial magnetic stimulation, Event-related potentials, Electrocardiograms, Electromyograms, Galvanic skin response, and studies of Focal Brain Lesion patients.

See also

• Affective neuroscience
• Biological psychology
• Cognitive neuropsychology
• Emotion
• Motor cognition
• Social cognition
• Social psychology

Social Neuroscience Journals

• Social Neuroscience New journal, inaugural issue published March 2006

• Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience New journal, inaugural issue published June 2006

• The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP) published a special section on Social Neuroscience in the October 2003 issue.

• The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience publishes occasional articles on Social Neuroscience, including a special issue on Social Neuroscience in December 2004.

• NeuroImage published a Special Section on Social Cognitive Neuroscience in the December 2005 issue.

• Psychophysiology has published several articles dealing with Social Neuroscience.

Key readings

• Cacioppo, J.T. (2002). "Social neuroscience: Understanding the pieces fosters understanding the whole and vice versa." American Psychologist, 57, 819-831.

• Cacioppo, J. T., & Berntson, G. G. (1992). Social psychological contributions to the decade of the brain: Doctrine of multilevel analysis. American Psychologist, 47, 1019-1028.

• Cacioppo, J.T., Berntson, G.G., Sheridan, J.F., & McClintock, M.K. (2000). "Multilevel integrative analyses of human behavior: social neuroscience and the complementing nature of social and biological approaches." Psychological Bulletin, 126, 829-843.

• Cacioppo, John T.; Gary G. Berntson (2004). Social Neuroscience: Key Readings,, Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-84169-099-5. 

• Cacioppo, John T.; Penny S. Visser, Cynthia L. Pickett (eds.) (2005). Social Neuroscience: People Thinking about Thinking People, MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-03335-6. 

• Harmon-Jones, E.; P. Winkielman (2007). Social Neuroscience: Integrating Biological and Psychological Explanations of Social Behavior, Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-59385-404-1. 

• Restak, Richard (2006). The Naked Brain. 
• van Lange, P.A.M. (2006). "Bridging Social Psychology: Benefits of Transdisciplinary Approaches." Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Wolpert, D. & Frith, C. (2004). "The Neuroscience of Social Interactions: Decoding, Influencing, and Imitating the Actions of Others." Oxford: Oxford University Press.

References

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership. Harvard Business Review; Sep2008, Vol. 86 Issue 9, p74-81.

External links

• University of Chicago Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience

• "What is social neuroscience?" Introduction from the first issue (March 2006) of the journal Social Neuroscience defining social neuroscience, listing the tools of social neuroscience, and addressing the impact of social neuroscience.

• "How the emotional parts of our brains can be manipulated." Web-only article in Newsweek online.