Summary
Summary Neuroscience of Behaviors and Emotional Disorders
- Course
- Institution
- Book
Summary of Neuroscience of Behaviors and Emotional Disorders (book, lectures and articles)
[Show more]
Connected book
Book Title:
Author(s):
- Edition:
- ISBN:
- Edition:
6 reviews
By: spamannabr • 11 months ago
By: victornieboer2001 • 2 year ago
By: quintyvdl • 2 year ago
By: zetadings • 2 year ago
By: mettegshopping • 1 year ago
By: temelece • 3 year ago
Seller
Follow
LotteTuinenburg
Reviews received
Content preview
The Student’s Guide to Social NeuroscienceChapter 1 to 11 with lecture notes
Chapter 1: Introduction to social neuroscience
Social neuroscience is a combination of sociology, (social) psychology and neuroscience. They all
have different ways of explaining behavior.
Sociology: the study of social behavior society, including its origins, development,
organization, networks and institutions (family, sport group). Looks at society as a whole or
at larger groups within a society.
o We tend to be favorable to our own group and consequently unfavorable to the
outgroup; this is why everyone is racist. We are prejudist; only the context decides
what the prejudist is (so, what we have a prejudice about)
Social psychology: for instance: ‘dehumanization’ (slavery, violent jihad, flaming).
o They look at how the underlying (automatic) motivation and emotions decide your
behavior. Looks at an individual that is influenced by the community/ larger groups.
o 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.
Neuroscience: look at the brain and how it influences behavior; for example the ‘love-drug’
oxytocin is only for the ingroup
o The neural mechanisms underlying behavior and thinking
Cognitive psychology: the study of mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, speaking,
acting and planning. It dissects these processes into different sub-mechanisms and explain
complex behavior in terms of interaction.
Cognitive psychology is more focused on information processing and behavior. Cognitive
neuroscience studies the underlying biology of information processing and behavior.
Cognitive psychology is also important in the social neuroscience, because it
decomposes complex social behaviors into simpler mechanisms.
Social neuroscience links together these disciplines (cognitive and social psychology) and
linking ‘mind’ (psychology) with brain (biology, neuroscience).
But it of course isn’t perfect…
Ecological validity: an approach or measure that is meaningful outside of the laboratory context;
social neuroscience is lacking ecological validity.
Is there something like ‘the social brain’? Is the brain modular (= specialized routines and brain
structures that perform very specific functions)? Or is it non-modular (= specific functions are the
result of many routines and structures)?
, Social brain is non-modular. Social and non-social cognition rely on each other and evolved
hand-in-hand.
Two different views on the non-modular social brain that has evolved over the years:
o General hypothesis: bigger brains lead to changes in both social and non-social intelligence
o Social intelligence hypothesis: pressure to outwit peers may lead to increased intelligence in
non-social domains; general cognition is a product of social cognition.
Triune brain model (MacLean): the human brain is an accumulation of brain regions that can be
roughly divide in three phylogenetic stages:
1. The reptilian brain (subcortex): action-reaction machinery (fight-or-flight reaction when
there is a threat)
2. The mammalian brain (limbic system): emotionality/ behavioral flexibility (behavior is more
flexible; based on emotions we approach or avoid it)
3. The primate brain (neo-cortex): rationality/ behavioral control over the lower level of the
brain
Each ‘newer’ layer supports more complex functions
and exerts some sort of control over the ‘older’ layer(s);
so the primate brain has control over the reptilian and
the mammalian brain.
This crosstalk however also means that a large part of
our behavior is still driven by similar brain mechanisms
as our ancestors (reptilian and mammalian brain)
Depending on the situation we are able to
control these mechanisms (to a certain extent!)
- The reptilian train is quite modular: small nuclei with distinct (non)social roles (specific
reflexed reactions)
- The mammalian brain is module-like: amygdala/insula
- The primate brain is non-modular: there are not discrete brain areas; but only mirror
neurons in our neocortex (these might have a specific social function)
o Mirror neurons: neurons that respond to both self-behavior and other-behavior
(during intentional actions). Thought to serve observational learning.
There may be comparable systems for emotion and sensation (e.g. pain) as
well as action
Social interactions between different individuals can be characterized by the same principle:
a kind of ‘mega-brain’ in which different regions in different brains can have a mutual
influence over each other due to our ability to perceive, interpret and act on the social
behavior of others.
How is the ‘social brain’ different from other brain regions?
There are three different ways in which different brain structures might be mapped to
different social functions:
1. One-to-one association between brain structure and function
Modularity: the notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain) are
restricted in the type of information they process, and the type of processing carried out.
, A module is the term given to a computational routine that responds to particular
inputs and performs a particular computation on them.
Domain specificity: the idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is specialized
for processing only one particular kind of information; a module only processes one
kind of input (e.g. faces, emotions)
According to this view the social brain is special by virtue of brain mechanisms that are
specifically dedicated to social processes and to tackle specific challenges within the social
environment.
o There is a module that responds to the sight of faces, but not the sight of bodies or
he sounds of people’s voices or indeed to any non-face stimuli.
o These is a module for detecting cheating
But, there also is the approach that states that ‘the social brain’ is also involved in non-social
aspects of cognition. Which holds two
views:
1. The evolution of general neural
and cognitive mechanisms that
increase intellect, make us socially
smarter too
2. The evolutionary need to be
socially smarter leads to general
cognitive advances in other
domains
Social cognition and non-social
cognition evolved hand-in-hand,
but did not lead to highly
specialized routines in the brain for
dealing with social problems.
2. The network consists of
specialized units that interact
(Frith, 2007)
There are particular kinds of neural
mechanisms especially suited to social
processes; for example mirror neurons:
general property of many neurons and is
not tightly localized to one region.
3. The network consists of interaction between non-specialized units.
Neither brain regions nor individual brain networks are functionally specialized or
segregated into social and non-social functions.
But how can we learn from brain-bases measures without situating them in a social,
economic and historical context?
, Researchers in social neuroscience are attempting to
create bridges between different levels of explanation (as
seen in the figure) rather than replace one kind of
explanation with another (= reductionism).
Social neuroscience also uses the reverse inference
approach: an attempt to infer the nature of cognitive
processes from neuroscience (neuroimaging) data. So, for
example; if the hippocampus is activated, then long-term
memory is involved.
This isn’t all good practice, because the function of
regions is not fixed but depends on the context and you should not totally rely on
neuroimaging data.
Difference between forward and reverse inference:
o Forward inference: if someone is frightened their amygdala is activated
o Reverse inference: if the amygdala is activated then someone is frightened
Culture
There is one scenario in which brain-based data could have no significant impact on our
understanding of social processes: the blank slate scenario. This is the idea that the brain
learns environmental unforeseen circumstances/ contingencies without imposing any biases,
constraints, or pre-existing knowledge on that learning. So, culture, society and the nature of
social interaction invent and shape themselves.
But, more realistically the brain creates constraints on social processing; the tendency to
form monogamous attachments is dependent on brain chemistry.
Social processes are all in the brain, but some of them are created by environmental
constraints and historical accidents whereas others may be causes by the inherent
organization, biases and limitations of the brain itself.
So, there are interacting levels of explanation where there is a cause and what causes
variability in the levels; so the cause is biological, but the level in which it outs itself is
environmental. For example: testosterone is correlated with levels of aggression in people of
low SES individuals, but not in high SES.
Neuroscientific explanation of culture is that it is neural mechanisms that respond to
repeated patterns of behavior in others, whom we affiliate positively with, and increase the
likelihood that our own neural mechanisms will generate those behaviors.
The variability in culture is limited, because biology may go as far as to specify which
cultural variants are likely, possible, or virtually impossible (for example a system of
slavery associated with high levels of empathy and humane cognitions doesn’t work
because of the nature of brain-based mechanisms)
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller LotteTuinenburg. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $9.11. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
67474 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now