Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of the Social Mind

The field of social cognitive neuroscience has captured the attention of many researchers during the past ten years. Much of the impetus for this new field came from the development of functional neuroimaging methods that made it possible to unobtrusively measure brain activation over time.
Using these methods over the last 30 years has allowed psychologists to move from simple validation questions -- would flashing stimuli activate the visual cortex -- to those about the functional specialization of brain regions-- are there regions in the inferior temporal cortex dedicated to face
processing-- to questions that, just a decade ago, would have been considered to be intractable at such a level of analysis.

These so-called intractable questions are the focus of the chapters in this book, which introduces social cognitive neuroscience research addressing questions of fundamental importance to social psychology: How do we understand and represent other people? How do we represent social groups? How do
we regulate our emotions and socially undesirable responses? This book also presents innovative combinations of multiple methodologies, including behavioral experiments, computer modeling, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiments, Event-Related Potential (ERP) experiments, and brain
lesion studies. It is divided into four sections. The first three sections present the latest research on, respectively, understanding and representing other people, representing social groups, and the interplay of cognition and emotion in social regulation. In the fourth section, contributors step
back and consider a range of novel topics that have emerged in the context of social neuroscience research: understanding social exclusion as pain, deconstructing our moral intuitions, understanding cooperative exchanges with other agents, and the effect of aging on brain function and its
implications for well-being. Taken together, these chapters provide a rich introduction to an exciting, rapidly developing and expanding field that promises a richer and deeper understanding of the social mind.


Author: Alexandre B. Todorov
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 02/11/2011
Pages: 328
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.05lbs
Size: 10.10h x 7.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780195316872

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2011

About the Author

Alexander Todorov, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University

Susan T. Fiske, PhD, is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology at Princeton University

Deborah Prentice, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology and Department Chair of Psychology at Princeton University

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