A textbook that lays down the foundational principles for understanding social neuroscience Humans, like many other animals, are a highly social species. But how do our biological systems implement social behaviors, and how do these processes shape the brain and biology? Spanning multiple disciplines, Introduction to Social Neuroscience seeks to engage students and scholars alike in exploring the effects of the brain’s perceived connections with others. This wide-ranging textbook provides a quintessential foundation for comprehending the psychological, neural, hormonal, cellular, and genomic mechanisms underlying such varied social processes as loneliness, empathy, theory-of-mind, trust, and cooperation. Stephanie and John Cacioppo posit that our brain is our main social organ. They show how the same objective relationship can be perceived as friendly or threatening depending on the mental states of the individuals involved in that relationship. They present exercises and evidence-based findings readers can put into practice to better understand the neural roots of the social brain and the cognitive and health implications of a dysfunctional social brain. This textbook’s distinctive features include the integration of human and animal studies, clinical cases from medicine, multilevel analyses of topics from genes to societies, and a variety of methodologies. Unveiling new facets to the study of the social brain’s anatomy and function, Introduction to Social Neuroscience widens the scientific lens on human interaction in society. The first textbook on social neuroscience intended for advanced undergraduates and graduate students Chapters address the psychological, neural, hormonal, cellular, and genomic mechanisms underlying the brain’s perceived connections with others Materials integrate human and animal studies, clinical cases, multilevel analyses, and multiple disciplines

Standing at the vanguard of cognitive neuroscience research into social behaviour, this book provides a state-of-the-art contribution to a subject still in its infancy.

This compelling volume provides a broad and accessible overview of the emerging field of social neuroscience. Showcasing an array of cutting-edge research programs, leading investigators present new approaches to the study of how the brain and body influence social behavior, and vice versa. Each authoritative chapter clearly describes the methods used: lesion studies, neuroimaging techniques, hormonal methods, event-related brain potential methods, and others. The contributors discuss the theoretical advantages of taking a social neuroscience perspective and analyze what their findings reveal about core social psychological phenomena. Essential topics include emotion, motivation, attitudes, person perception, stereotyping and prejudice, and interpersonal relationships.

Neuroscientists and cognitive scientists have collaborated for more than a decade with the common goal of understanding how the mind works. These collaborations have helped unravel puzzles of the mind including aspects of perception, imagery, attention and memory. Many aspects of the mind, however, require a more comprehensive approach to reveal the mystery of mind-brain connections. Attraction, altruism, speech recognition, affiliation, attachment, attitudes, identification, kin recognition, cooperation, competition, empathy, sexuality, communication, dominance, persuasion, obedience, morality, contagion, nurturance, violence, and person memory are just a few. Through classic and contemporary articles and reviews, Social Neuroscience illustrates the complementary nature of social, cognitive, and biological levels of analysis and how research integrating these levels can foster more comprehensive theories of the mechanisms underlying complex behaviour and the mind.

A comprehensive survey of the growing field of social neuroscience.

Studies in the neurobiological underpinnings of social information processing by psychologists, neurobiologists, psychiatrists, radiologists, and neurologists, using methods that range from brain imaging techniques to comparative analyses. Social neuroscience uses the methodologies and tools developed to measure mental and brain function to study social cognition, emotion, and behavior. In this collection John Cacioppo, Penny Visser, and Cynthia Pickett have brought together contributions from psychologists, neurobiologists, psychiatrists, radiologists, and neurologists that focus on the neurobiological underpinnings of social information processing, particularly the mechanisms underlying "people thinking about thinking people." In these studies such methods as functional brain imaging, studies of brain lesion patients, comparative analyses, and developmental data are brought to bear on social thinking and feeling systems—the ways in which human beings influence and are influenced by other humans. The broad range of disciplines represented by the contributors confirms that among the strengths of social neuroscience are its interdisciplinary approach and the use of multiple methods that bridge disciplines and levels of analysis.

This compelling volume provides a broad and accessible overview on the rapidly developing field of social neuroscience. A major goal of the volume is to integrate research findings on the neural basis of social behavior across different levels of analysis from rodent studies on molecular neurobiology to behavioral neuroscience to fMRI imaging data on human social behavior.