1
,Hoofdstuk 1. Introduction to social neuroscience
Social psychology: an attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors
of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
Cognitive psychology: the study of mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, speaking, acting
and planning.
Stanley and Adolphs (2013) provide a compelling summery of the current state of social neuroscience
and point to its future evolution. They summarize it as follows: although we have moved from
regions to networks, the next key step is to identify the flow of information through these networks to
follow social information processing from stimulus through to response. This requires an
understanding of the detailed computations implemented by the different nodes in the networks as
well the dynamic interplay between them. One could make the analogy of moving from words (brain
areas) to sentences (networks) to proposition (arrangements of network dynamics) to conversations
(brains interacting). We are still solidly in the age of sentences and are only beginning to enter the
age of propositions and conversations.
Willingham and Dunn (2003) cautioned social psychologist against changing their research agenda
just to make them amenable to a neuroimaging approach: some of the topics of interest to social
psychologists are not amenable to brain localization techniques because of the complexity of the
processes: they have embedded in them subprocesses that interact, and such complex processes are
different to localize. It would be a pity if, in their justifiable enthusiasm for neuroimaging, social
psychologists subtly shifted their research programs to problems that are amenable to brain
localization or shifted their theoretical language to constructs that are localizable.
Uncanny valley: the tendency for robots that resemble humans (i.e. uncanny) but are imperfect in
some wat to elicit unease.
Ecological validity: an approach or measure that is meaningful outside of the laboratory context.
Modularity: the notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions in the brain) are restricted in the
type of information they process and the type of processing carried out.
Domain specificity: the idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is specialized for processing
only one particular kind of information.
2
,Three different ways in which different brain structures might be mapped to different functions
(tasks and processes). In (a) there is a one-to-one association between brain structures and function
whereas in both (b) and (c) a network of regions may make differing contributions to a given
function. In (b) the network consists of specialized units that interact, but in (c) the network consists
of interactions between non-specialized units.
3
, Reductionism: one type of explanation will become replaced with another, more basic, type of
explanation over time.
Reverse inference: an attempt to infer the nature of cognitive processes from neuroscience (notably
neuroimaging) data.
An example of a forward and reverse inference in social neuroscience. Even if the forward inference
is correct, then it doesn’t necessarily imply that the reverse inference will be. In this example it could
be possible that the amygdala is activated by other kinds of intense emotional experiences (e.g. joy)
in addition of fear.
- Forward inference: if someone is frightened their amygdala is activated.
- Reverse inference: if the amygdala is activated then someone is frightened.
Blank slate: the idea that the brain learns environmental contingencies without imposing any biases,
constraints or preexisting knowledge on that learning.
Cultural neuroscience: an interdisciplinary field bridging cultural psychology, neurosciences and
neurogenetics.
Gene-culture co-evolution: culture can influence gene frequencies in a population and genes have an
impact on cultural evolution via psychological predispositions.
Collectivist culture: the goals of the social group are emphasized over individual goals.
Individualist culture: the goals of the individual are emphasized over the social group.
Summary and key points of the chapter
• Social neuroscience can be defined as an attempt to understand and explain, using neural
mechanisms, how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the
actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
• There are various ways in which a ‘social brain’ (i.e. a set of neural routines for dealing with
social situations) could be implemented. At one level, there may be domain specific routines
that evolved for serving specific functions. At the other extreme, the same set of routines
may be used in both social and non-social situations. Other positions are neural routines
that are predominantly used for dealing with social situations but serve more generic
function, or non-modular solutions implemented throughout the brain (e.g. mirror systems).
• Social neuroscience aims to create bridges between different levels of explanation of social
behavior. The brain, and its workings, is likely to create casual constrains on the way that
social interactions are organized rather than merely soaking up the social world (as a blank
slate).
• Gene-culture co-evolution is one example of interactions between different levels of
explanation that determines how culture selects genes and, more controversially, for how
genes select cultures.
4
,Hoofdstuk 1. Introduction to social neuroscience
Social psychology: an attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors
of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
Cognitive psychology: the study of mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, speaking, acting
and planning.
Stanley and Adolphs (2013) provide a compelling summery of the current state of social neuroscience
and point to its future evolution. They summarize it as follows: although we have moved from
regions to networks, the next key step is to identify the flow of information through these networks to
follow social information processing from stimulus through to response. This requires an
understanding of the detailed computations implemented by the different nodes in the networks as
well the dynamic interplay between them. One could make the analogy of moving from words (brain
areas) to sentences (networks) to proposition (arrangements of network dynamics) to conversations
(brains interacting). We are still solidly in the age of sentences and are only beginning to enter the
age of propositions and conversations.
Willingham and Dunn (2003) cautioned social psychologist against changing their research agenda
just to make them amenable to a neuroimaging approach: some of the topics of interest to social
psychologists are not amenable to brain localization techniques because of the complexity of the
processes: they have embedded in them subprocesses that interact, and such complex processes are
different to localize. It would be a pity if, in their justifiable enthusiasm for neuroimaging, social
psychologists subtly shifted their research programs to problems that are amenable to brain
localization or shifted their theoretical language to constructs that are localizable.
Uncanny valley: the tendency for robots that resemble humans (i.e. uncanny) but are imperfect in
some wat to elicit unease.
Ecological validity: an approach or measure that is meaningful outside of the laboratory context.
Modularity: the notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions in the brain) are restricted in the
type of information they process and the type of processing carried out.
Domain specificity: the idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is specialized for processing
only one particular kind of information.
2
,Three different ways in which different brain structures might be mapped to different functions
(tasks and processes). In (a) there is a one-to-one association between brain structures and function
whereas in both (b) and (c) a network of regions may make differing contributions to a given
function. In (b) the network consists of specialized units that interact, but in (c) the network consists
of interactions between non-specialized units.
3
, Reductionism: one type of explanation will become replaced with another, more basic, type of
explanation over time.
Reverse inference: an attempt to infer the nature of cognitive processes from neuroscience (notably
neuroimaging) data.
An example of a forward and reverse inference in social neuroscience. Even if the forward inference
is correct, then it doesn’t necessarily imply that the reverse inference will be. In this example it could
be possible that the amygdala is activated by other kinds of intense emotional experiences (e.g. joy)
in addition of fear.
- Forward inference: if someone is frightened their amygdala is activated.
- Reverse inference: if the amygdala is activated then someone is frightened.
Blank slate: the idea that the brain learns environmental contingencies without imposing any biases,
constraints or preexisting knowledge on that learning.
Cultural neuroscience: an interdisciplinary field bridging cultural psychology, neurosciences and
neurogenetics.
Gene-culture co-evolution: culture can influence gene frequencies in a population and genes have an
impact on cultural evolution via psychological predispositions.
Collectivist culture: the goals of the social group are emphasized over individual goals.
Individualist culture: the goals of the individual are emphasized over the social group.
Summary and key points of the chapter
• Social neuroscience can be defined as an attempt to understand and explain, using neural
mechanisms, how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the
actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
• There are various ways in which a ‘social brain’ (i.e. a set of neural routines for dealing with
social situations) could be implemented. At one level, there may be domain specific routines
that evolved for serving specific functions. At the other extreme, the same set of routines
may be used in both social and non-social situations. Other positions are neural routines
that are predominantly used for dealing with social situations but serve more generic
function, or non-modular solutions implemented throughout the brain (e.g. mirror systems).
• Social neuroscience aims to create bridges between different levels of explanation of social
behavior. The brain, and its workings, is likely to create casual constrains on the way that
social interactions are organized rather than merely soaking up the social world (as a blank
slate).
• Gene-culture co-evolution is one example of interactions between different levels of
explanation that determines how culture selects genes and, more controversially, for how
genes select cultures.
4
