Chapter 1 Introduction to social neuroscience
Cognition is a network of flowing signals between different regions of the brain. Social interaction is marked by
a kind of mega-brain in which different brains have mutual influence over each other. With fMRI records is to
see that neural activity in correlates across brains. This is caused by our ability to perceive, interpret and act on
the social behavior of others.
Social psychology is an attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of
individuals are influences by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other (Allport).
Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, speaking, acting and
planning.
The emergence of social neuroscience
Social neuroscience is an attempt to understand and explain, using the methods and theories of neuroscience,
how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influences by the actual, imagined or implied
presence of others. Most social neuroscientists are drawn from the field of cognitive psychology. Social
neuroscience links cognitive and social psychology, linking mind (psychology) with brain (biology). Methods of
cognitive neuroscience as fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are directed to social processes.
The social brain?
Social brain: set of neural routines for dealing with social situations.
1) The social brain can be considered distinct from all the other functions of the brain (phrenology). There are
particular neural substrates in the brain that are only involved in social cognition.
Modularity: certain cognitive processes (or brain regions) are restricted in the type of information they
process and type of processing.
Module: a computational, highly specialized routine that responds to particular input
Domain specificity: a cognitive process (or brain region) is specialized for processing only one kind of
information, like only faces or emotions. These mechanisms tackle challenges in the social world.
2) The social brain is not specialized for social behavior, but also involved in non-social aspects of cognition.
These factors are driving each other.
3) There are other positions in-between these two extremes, like there are not particular regions but particular
neural mechanisms for social processes. An example of a social neural mechanism are mirror neurons.
Is neuroscience an appropriate level of explanation for studying social behavior?
Reductionism: one type of explanation will be replaced with another, more basic type of explanation over time.
Social neuroscience aims to create a bridge between different levels op explanation of social psychology
(culture, society, personal) and neuroscience (brain, cellular and molecular). There are multiple ways to create
these bridges.
Reverse inference: infer the nature of cognitive processes from neuroscience data (neuroimaging). For example,
if the hippocampus is activated then long-term memory is involved. There are problems with this approach.
Blank slate: the brain learns environmental contingencies without imposing any biased constraints, or pre-
existing knowledge on that learning. The brain just accepts whatever information is given, so the structure of our
social environment is created within the environment itself. It is soaking up the social world as a blank slate.
It is more realistic to think that the brain creates constraints on social processes. Social processes are all in the
brain, but some of them are created by environmental constraints and thus learned by the brain. The brain
constrains the way that social interactions are organized. Other social processes are inherent in the brain.
Culture doesn’t create itself, but variability in culture reflects different environments. The number of different
cultures is bound by biology. Some variants are biologically impossible.
, Chapter 2 The methods of social neuroscience
The main methods of social neuroscience have a number of dimensions:
Temporal resolution: accuracy of when
Spatial resolution: accuracy of where
Invasiveness: internal of external equipment
Measuring behavior and cognition: psychological methods
1) Performance based measures
a. Response time: efficiency / mental chronometry (time course). Measures processing time.
Decisions are faster when a face is smiling, so it may be that faces are stored in an expressive pose
of that a familiar face en expression interact with eachtother.
b. Accuracy rate: error rate, percentage correct or relative percentile performance. It is about the
presence/absence of knowledge.
+ Reflects real behavior; simple to analyze and interpret
- Hard to link with neural substrates; laboratory task is different from real behavior
Efficiency and accuracy rate are related; when people have to respond faster they are less accurate. This is
called the speed-accuracy trade off.
2) Observational measures
a. Preferential looking: preference for social stimuli
b. Habituation: critical phase when a new stimulus is presented and attention increases
+ No instructions needed; naturalistic settings
- Scoring system is open to human error (inter-rater reliability); observer bias (when the observer
knows the hypothesis). A solution is blind scoring (not knowing the stimulus or computerized scoring)
Are used in infancy research and non-human research or if the participant may not know the true nature of a
task.
3) Survey measures
a. Questionnaires: mostly fixed questions
b. Interviews: mostly open-ended questions
+ If experiments are impossible; measure thoughts and attitudes rather than behavior
- Self-report may not reflect real behavior; social cognition is often unconsciously
Reliability can be assessed by asking participants to repeat the same questionnaire or to include items that
tap the same knowledge. Survey methods can be used to explore if concepts have underlying variables
(factor analysis). Surveys have low external validity (real life) but a solution is to administer the surveys
anonymously. Surveys have a supporting role in social neuroscience and are correlated with other measures.
The correlation with fMRI is often .74 which suggests that some finding are Type I errors (significant
result when there is no real effect)
How to measure the unconscious
Effects of stimuli can be processed unconsciously. To present a visual stimuli unconsciously, it has to be
presented for a brief duration and followed with junk visual stimuli. This is called masking and this is an
example of subliminal perception. The stimulus influences behavior. Another method is to present a stimuli for a
longer duration but outside the locus of attention.
Measuring bodily responses
1) Skin conductance response (SCR): monitor small changes in conductivity as a result of mild sweating
(from ecrine glands). The conductivity of the skin decreases and electrical signals flow more easily.
2) Electromyography (EMG): assessing electrical activity associated with muscle movement, because of
action potentials in muscle fibers. Mostly used for face expressions and to measure the eye blink startle
response (loud, unexpected sound and modulated by emotional state). Two small electrodes are placed close
to each other to measure potential difference. A third electrode or rest phase is used as a baseline.
+ Unconscious processes; easy to record and analyze
Cognition is a network of flowing signals between different regions of the brain. Social interaction is marked by
a kind of mega-brain in which different brains have mutual influence over each other. With fMRI records is to
see that neural activity in correlates across brains. This is caused by our ability to perceive, interpret and act on
the social behavior of others.
Social psychology is an attempt to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of
individuals are influences by the actual, imagined or implied presence of other (Allport).
Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, speaking, acting and
planning.
The emergence of social neuroscience
Social neuroscience is an attempt to understand and explain, using the methods and theories of neuroscience,
how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influences by the actual, imagined or implied
presence of others. Most social neuroscientists are drawn from the field of cognitive psychology. Social
neuroscience links cognitive and social psychology, linking mind (psychology) with brain (biology). Methods of
cognitive neuroscience as fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are directed to social processes.
The social brain?
Social brain: set of neural routines for dealing with social situations.
1) The social brain can be considered distinct from all the other functions of the brain (phrenology). There are
particular neural substrates in the brain that are only involved in social cognition.
Modularity: certain cognitive processes (or brain regions) are restricted in the type of information they
process and type of processing.
Module: a computational, highly specialized routine that responds to particular input
Domain specificity: a cognitive process (or brain region) is specialized for processing only one kind of
information, like only faces or emotions. These mechanisms tackle challenges in the social world.
2) The social brain is not specialized for social behavior, but also involved in non-social aspects of cognition.
These factors are driving each other.
3) There are other positions in-between these two extremes, like there are not particular regions but particular
neural mechanisms for social processes. An example of a social neural mechanism are mirror neurons.
Is neuroscience an appropriate level of explanation for studying social behavior?
Reductionism: one type of explanation will be replaced with another, more basic type of explanation over time.
Social neuroscience aims to create a bridge between different levels op explanation of social psychology
(culture, society, personal) and neuroscience (brain, cellular and molecular). There are multiple ways to create
these bridges.
Reverse inference: infer the nature of cognitive processes from neuroscience data (neuroimaging). For example,
if the hippocampus is activated then long-term memory is involved. There are problems with this approach.
Blank slate: the brain learns environmental contingencies without imposing any biased constraints, or pre-
existing knowledge on that learning. The brain just accepts whatever information is given, so the structure of our
social environment is created within the environment itself. It is soaking up the social world as a blank slate.
It is more realistic to think that the brain creates constraints on social processes. Social processes are all in the
brain, but some of them are created by environmental constraints and thus learned by the brain. The brain
constrains the way that social interactions are organized. Other social processes are inherent in the brain.
Culture doesn’t create itself, but variability in culture reflects different environments. The number of different
cultures is bound by biology. Some variants are biologically impossible.
, Chapter 2 The methods of social neuroscience
The main methods of social neuroscience have a number of dimensions:
Temporal resolution: accuracy of when
Spatial resolution: accuracy of where
Invasiveness: internal of external equipment
Measuring behavior and cognition: psychological methods
1) Performance based measures
a. Response time: efficiency / mental chronometry (time course). Measures processing time.
Decisions are faster when a face is smiling, so it may be that faces are stored in an expressive pose
of that a familiar face en expression interact with eachtother.
b. Accuracy rate: error rate, percentage correct or relative percentile performance. It is about the
presence/absence of knowledge.
+ Reflects real behavior; simple to analyze and interpret
- Hard to link with neural substrates; laboratory task is different from real behavior
Efficiency and accuracy rate are related; when people have to respond faster they are less accurate. This is
called the speed-accuracy trade off.
2) Observational measures
a. Preferential looking: preference for social stimuli
b. Habituation: critical phase when a new stimulus is presented and attention increases
+ No instructions needed; naturalistic settings
- Scoring system is open to human error (inter-rater reliability); observer bias (when the observer
knows the hypothesis). A solution is blind scoring (not knowing the stimulus or computerized scoring)
Are used in infancy research and non-human research or if the participant may not know the true nature of a
task.
3) Survey measures
a. Questionnaires: mostly fixed questions
b. Interviews: mostly open-ended questions
+ If experiments are impossible; measure thoughts and attitudes rather than behavior
- Self-report may not reflect real behavior; social cognition is often unconsciously
Reliability can be assessed by asking participants to repeat the same questionnaire or to include items that
tap the same knowledge. Survey methods can be used to explore if concepts have underlying variables
(factor analysis). Surveys have low external validity (real life) but a solution is to administer the surveys
anonymously. Surveys have a supporting role in social neuroscience and are correlated with other measures.
The correlation with fMRI is often .74 which suggests that some finding are Type I errors (significant
result when there is no real effect)
How to measure the unconscious
Effects of stimuli can be processed unconsciously. To present a visual stimuli unconsciously, it has to be
presented for a brief duration and followed with junk visual stimuli. This is called masking and this is an
example of subliminal perception. The stimulus influences behavior. Another method is to present a stimuli for a
longer duration but outside the locus of attention.
Measuring bodily responses
1) Skin conductance response (SCR): monitor small changes in conductivity as a result of mild sweating
(from ecrine glands). The conductivity of the skin decreases and electrical signals flow more easily.
2) Electromyography (EMG): assessing electrical activity associated with muscle movement, because of
action potentials in muscle fibers. Mostly used for face expressions and to measure the eye blink startle
response (loud, unexpected sound and modulated by emotional state). Two small electrodes are placed close
to each other to measure potential difference. A third electrode or rest phase is used as a baseline.
+ Unconscious processes; easy to record and analyze
