Book summary ‘The Student’s Guide to
Social Neuroscience’ by Jamie ward
(third edition)
Social neuroscience Tilburg University 2023/2024
,Chapter 1: Introduction to social neuroscience
● Activity in regions of one person's brain can elicit activity in other regions of the other
person's brain
○ An example: a trusting relationship, when one person makes a decision
→ the other person's brain has rewarding activity (King-Casas et al.)
○ Hyperscanning technique records two or more brains simultaneously (e.g. using
fMRI or EEG)
● Social neuroscience is kind of a ‘mega-brain’
○ Different regions in different brains can influence each other
○ Because of interpretation, perceiving and acting
Emerging social neuroscience
● Social neuroscience is a combination of social psychology and neuroscience
○ Social neuroscience is a subdiscipline of social psychology, but most
researchers have a background in cognitive psychology
○ The term is used since the 90’s
○ Social neuroscience is recognized since the year 2000
● Most processes in social neuroscience are complex and hard to localize
○ And lack ecological validity (an approach that is meaningful in the real world)
● Social robots?
○ The more those appear like humans, the more comfortable we are around them
○ Uncanny valley is when people feel uneasy when robots resemble humans but
are imperfect in some ways (e.g. Sophia)
Social brain?
Can the social brain be considered distinct from all the other functions of the brain? Is it special?
1. Modularity view
● There are particular neural substrates (domains) involved in social cognition (but
not in other types of cognition)
● Specialized for processing only one kind of information (e.g. faces, emotions)
● Functional connectivity networks exists, so brain will have different
specializations
● Example: there is a module for detecting cheating (Cosmides)
● Critics:
○ Resembles phrenology (not a grounded critic, since experiments are used
nowadays)
○ Rethink domain specificity in terms of ‘limited domains’ instead of ‘single
domains’
2. Non-specialized view
, ● Social brain also involved in non-social aspects of cognition (e.g. reasoning,
visual perception, threat detection)
● Evolution thoughts:
○ Bigger brains → increase intellect → socially smarter (byproduct; in line
with non-specialized view)
○ Need to be socially smarter → smarter in other domains too
(hand-in-hand evolution)
3. Social information is different
● Social brain is special because it processes more unpredictable information
(social information)
● Less stable and definite concepts
● Example: activation of the medial prefrontal cortex by a wide range of social
phenomena such as emotional experience and interpreting others behavior
4. Special kinds of neural mechanisms
● Particular kinds of neural mechanisms are especially suited to social processes
○ So not particular special regions, but ‘normal’ mechanisms, from which
some of them work better than others in social situations
○ Processes not specifically social
● Exception to the rule: mirror neurons
○ Respond to an action when you perform it yourself and when someone
else performs it
○ Single neuron level, enables correspondence between self and other
■ Imitation, empathy and mind reading
○ Still discussion about it being exceptionally social, some researchers think
that mirror neurons arose from associative learning
5. An overview of the debate with three different ways in which structures might be mapped
to functions
● Brain structure → function
● Specialized units in the brain that interact e.g. parts of the prefrontal cortex
● Non-specialized units that interact e.g. central executive network
Neuroscience as a measure for studying social behavior?
What can we ever learn from brain-based measures without situating them in a social, economic
and historical context?
● Reductionism is the thought that only one type of explanation will be kept
○ One type of explanation (e.g. social psychology; relationships, attitudes etc.) will
be replaced with another, more basic one (neuroscience; oxytocin, plasticity etc.)
over time
○ But: most researchers try to create a bridge between the two
■ Combining questionnaires with neuroscience data for example
● Reverse inference is an attempt to infer the nature of cognitive processes from
neuroscience (neuroimaging data)
Social Neuroscience’ by Jamie ward
(third edition)
Social neuroscience Tilburg University 2023/2024
,Chapter 1: Introduction to social neuroscience
● Activity in regions of one person's brain can elicit activity in other regions of the other
person's brain
○ An example: a trusting relationship, when one person makes a decision
→ the other person's brain has rewarding activity (King-Casas et al.)
○ Hyperscanning technique records two or more brains simultaneously (e.g. using
fMRI or EEG)
● Social neuroscience is kind of a ‘mega-brain’
○ Different regions in different brains can influence each other
○ Because of interpretation, perceiving and acting
Emerging social neuroscience
● Social neuroscience is a combination of social psychology and neuroscience
○ Social neuroscience is a subdiscipline of social psychology, but most
researchers have a background in cognitive psychology
○ The term is used since the 90’s
○ Social neuroscience is recognized since the year 2000
● Most processes in social neuroscience are complex and hard to localize
○ And lack ecological validity (an approach that is meaningful in the real world)
● Social robots?
○ The more those appear like humans, the more comfortable we are around them
○ Uncanny valley is when people feel uneasy when robots resemble humans but
are imperfect in some ways (e.g. Sophia)
Social brain?
Can the social brain be considered distinct from all the other functions of the brain? Is it special?
1. Modularity view
● There are particular neural substrates (domains) involved in social cognition (but
not in other types of cognition)
● Specialized for processing only one kind of information (e.g. faces, emotions)
● Functional connectivity networks exists, so brain will have different
specializations
● Example: there is a module for detecting cheating (Cosmides)
● Critics:
○ Resembles phrenology (not a grounded critic, since experiments are used
nowadays)
○ Rethink domain specificity in terms of ‘limited domains’ instead of ‘single
domains’
2. Non-specialized view
, ● Social brain also involved in non-social aspects of cognition (e.g. reasoning,
visual perception, threat detection)
● Evolution thoughts:
○ Bigger brains → increase intellect → socially smarter (byproduct; in line
with non-specialized view)
○ Need to be socially smarter → smarter in other domains too
(hand-in-hand evolution)
3. Social information is different
● Social brain is special because it processes more unpredictable information
(social information)
● Less stable and definite concepts
● Example: activation of the medial prefrontal cortex by a wide range of social
phenomena such as emotional experience and interpreting others behavior
4. Special kinds of neural mechanisms
● Particular kinds of neural mechanisms are especially suited to social processes
○ So not particular special regions, but ‘normal’ mechanisms, from which
some of them work better than others in social situations
○ Processes not specifically social
● Exception to the rule: mirror neurons
○ Respond to an action when you perform it yourself and when someone
else performs it
○ Single neuron level, enables correspondence between self and other
■ Imitation, empathy and mind reading
○ Still discussion about it being exceptionally social, some researchers think
that mirror neurons arose from associative learning
5. An overview of the debate with three different ways in which structures might be mapped
to functions
● Brain structure → function
● Specialized units in the brain that interact e.g. parts of the prefrontal cortex
● Non-specialized units that interact e.g. central executive network
Neuroscience as a measure for studying social behavior?
What can we ever learn from brain-based measures without situating them in a social, economic
and historical context?
● Reductionism is the thought that only one type of explanation will be kept
○ One type of explanation (e.g. social psychology; relationships, attitudes etc.) will
be replaced with another, more basic one (neuroscience; oxytocin, plasticity etc.)
over time
○ But: most researchers try to create a bridge between the two
■ Combining questionnaires with neuroscience data for example
● Reverse inference is an attempt to infer the nature of cognitive processes from
neuroscience (neuroimaging data)
