scholarly journals A Review Essay on Social Neuroscience: Can Research on the Social Brain and Economics Inform Each Other?

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Alós-Ferrer

Social neuroscience studies the “social brain,” conceived as the set of brain structures and functions supporting the perception and evaluation of the social environment. This article provides an overview of the field, using the book Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (Russell K. Schutt, Larry J. Seidman, and Matcheri S. Keshavan, editors) as a starting point. Topics include the evolution of the social brain, the concept of “theory of mind,” the relevant brain networks, and documented failures of the social brain. I argue that social neuroscience and economics can greatly benefit from each other because the social brain underlies interpersonal decision making, as studied in economics. (JEL D11, D71, D87, Z13)

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Cacioppo ◽  
Stephanie Cacioppo ◽  
Steven W. Cole

Social neuroscience emerged more than 20 years ago and has grown into a mature interdisciplinary scientific field. Research now provides compelling evidence that the structure and function of the nervous system are influenced by the social environment. Recent work in social genomics further underscores the importance of the social environment by demonstrating the influence of the social environment on gene expression. The multi-level, interdisciplinary approach and the integration of animal models and human research in social neuroscience have proven synergistic and promise continued advances in the delineation of the social brain across species and generations.


Author(s):  
Mykhailo Mozhaiev ◽  
Pavlo Buslov

The results of the development of an information model for the personality’s social portrait formation are presented. The modelling has been carried out using OSINT technology that is the technology of legal obtaining and using open source information. In the result of the analysis, it has been found out that the social portrait is a heterogeneous semantic network consisting of personalized data. It has been defined that people organize formal and official communities of various orientations and the number of such communities associated with a particular person is practically unlimited. When formalizing the decision-making process, the concept of a group social portrait (GSP) has been introduced, which takes into account the community’s social tendencies united by certain common properties, group members' interpersonal interactions and their behavioural patterns. The obtained information models of personal and group social portraits let to take into account all the main properties of the objects under study, their tonality and significance, as well as to conduct an analysis of the implicit dependencies determination. The next step is to move on to considering the diversity of the digital social environment elements.


2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1693) ◽  
pp. 20150379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne De Jaegher ◽  
Ezequiel Di Paolo ◽  
Ralph Adolphs

A recent framework inspired by phenomenological philosophy, dynamical systems theory, embodied cognition and robotics has proposed the interactive brain hypothesis (IBH). Whereas mainstream social neuroscience views social cognition as arising solely from events in the brain, the IBH argues that social cognition requires, in addition, causal relations between the brain and the social environment. We discuss, in turn, the foundational claims for the IBH in its strongest form; classical views of cognition that can be raised against the IBH; a defence of the IBH in the light of these arguments; and a response to this. Our goal is to initiate a dialogue between cognitive neuroscience and enactive views of social cognition. We conclude by suggesting some new directions and emphases that social neuroscience might take.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
Petru Ioan Marian-Arnat

Abstract The paper approaches contemporary Romanian media in order to outline negotiation and discursive conflict strategies in public storytelling about the country’s recent history. In the so-called Romanian social imaginary, notions of public versus private highlight the way public officials resort to the language of culture-specific communication-related concepts that are a starting point for much of the discourse on decision-making


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Wang ◽  
Athanasia Metoki ◽  
Kylie H. Alm ◽  
Ingrid R. Olson

AbstractThere is a growing consensus that social cognition and behavior emerge from interactions across distributed regions of the “social brain”. Social neuroscience has traditionally focused its attention on functional response properties of these gray matter networks and neglected the vital role of white matter (WM) connections in establishing such networks and their functions. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive review of prior research on structural connectivity in social neuroscience and highlight the importance of this literature in clarifying brain mechanisms of social cognition. We pay particular attention to the research on three key social processes: face processing, embodied cognition, and theory of mind, and their respective underlying neural networks. To fully identify and characterize the anatomical architecture of these networks, we further implement probabilistic tractography on a large sample of diffusion-weighted imaging data. The combination of an in-depth literature review and the empirical investigation gives us an unprecedented, well-defined landscape of WM pathways underlying major social brain networks. Finally, we discuss current problems in the field, outline suggestions for best practice in diffusion imaging data collection and analysis, and offer new directions for future research.AbbreviationsACCanterior cingulate cortexADaxial diffusivityAFarcuate fasciculusAIanterior insulaALSamyotrophic lateral sclerosisAMGamygdalaASDautism spectrum disordersATLanterior temporal lobeATRanterior thalamic radiationCCcorpus callosumCINGcingulum bundleCSTcortico-spinal tractDESdirect electrical stimulationdMPFCdorsal medial prefrontal cortexdMRIdiffusion-weighted MRIDPdevelopmental prosopagnosiaDTIdiffusion tensor imagingFAfractional anisotropyFFAfusiform face areaIFGinferior frontal gyrusIFOFinferior fronto-occipital fasciculusILFinferior longitudinal fasciculusIPLinferior parietal lobeMCImild cognitive impairmentMDmean diffusivityMPFCmedial prefrontal cortexMSmultiple sclerosisOFAoccipital face areaOFCorbitofrontal cortex face patchPCCposterior cingulate cortexPDParkinson’s diseasePPprogressive prosopagnosiaPreCprecuneusRDradial diffusivityROIregion-of-interestsMRIstructural MRISTSsuperior temporal sulcusTBSStract-based spatial statisticsToMTheory of MindTPJtemporo-parietal junctionUFuncinate fasciculusVBMvoxel based morphometryvMPFCventral medial prefrontal cortexWMwhite matter


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 380-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan L. Meyer

Social-neuroscience research has identified a set of medial frontoparietal brain regions that reliably engage during social cognition. At the same time, cognitive-neuroscience research has shown that these regions comprise part of the default network, so named because they reliably activate during mental breaks by default. Although the anatomical similarity between the social brain and the default brain is well documented, why this overlap exists remains a mystery. Does the tendency to engage these regions by default during rest have particular social functions, and if so, what might these be? Here, it is suggested that the default network performs two critical social functions during rest: social priming and social consolidation. These constructs will be defined, recently published empirical findings that support them will be reviewed, and directions for future research on the topic will be proposed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg J. Norman ◽  
Louise C. Hawkley ◽  
Steve W. Cole ◽  
Gary G. Berntson ◽  
John T. Cacioppo

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