Social neuroscience Domina Petric, MD

Introduction Several brain regions have been attributed to certain socially relevant functions. 

STS Superior temporal sulcus (STS) is linked to the detection of biological motion.  http://operativeneurosurgery.com

Medial prefrontal cortex The medial prefrontal cortex and midline cortical structures are related to perspective taking as well as self-related processing and awareness. http://www.psypost.org

Temporal pole, amygdala The temporal pole and amygdala are related to social scripts, emotions, and judgments.  Medvizor.com

Temporoparietal junction The temporoparietal junction, along with medial prefrontal cortex and temporal poles are related to mentalizing immediate goals and desires. Wikipedia.org

Senses Senses are important for social interaction. Deafness at an early age impairs mental development strongly if no gestural language is available, and early blindness affects social communication. 

Senses The social touch relies on thin unmyelinated fibers. Stimulation of unmyelinated fibers is associated with release of oxytocin that is important for social bonding and trust.

Faces Faces are essential for the development of interacting minds. In adults, visual analysis of faces involves the fusiform gyrus, the inferior occipital gyrus, and the posterior part of STS.

Faces The “fusiform face area” responds, 140–170 ms after stimulus onset, more strongly to faces than to any other objects. The fusiform gyrus probably relates to the awareness of the presence of a face. 

Faces The cortical representations of faces seem to be distributed both spatially and temporally.

Action-perception loop People are active participants in their interactions with the environment, searching for information and simultaneously changing the environment.

Action-perception loop Each person influences and shapes her environment, and the environment (including other people) in turn modifies the brain of the acting person. 

Action-perception loop With repetition, actions become automatically associated with the expected sensory consequences. Perception can be simulated without any external physical stimuli, and the consequences of the forthcoming actions can be anticipated.  

Action-perception loop Understanding another person's actions necessitates a close action–perception link both within and between individuals.

Intersubjectivity Intersubjectivity refers to implicit understanding of other persons' feelings and aims and the sharing of a common world.

Mentalizing An important manifestation of the ability to distinguish between self and others is mentalizing. It is thinking about other people and believing that they have feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and intentions of their own. 

Mentalizing Mentalizing is connected to the ability to make both first and third person views (what I am doing and what the others are doing). 

Theory of mind The “simulation theory” states that children simulate in their minds another person's actions and intentions. The “theory theory” assumes that children innately develop theories about the world and other people and try to verify them in reality. 

Attachment styles Attachment styles are fundamental personality traits (remain more or less the same throughout life):  persons with the secure attachment style are positive and confident persons with anxious attachment style are afraid of rejection in all possible situations persons with avoidant attachment style prefer distance, do not appreciate affective signals, and rate positive pictures less positive than do other people

Gaze The direct eye gaze, the “key to the door of the infant social brain”, facilitates face recognition and cortical processing of faces as early as 4 months of age. Joint attention with an adult enhances the attentional processes in 9 months old.

Nonverbal communication During social interaction, a person is able to nonverbally transmit attitudes and feelings via gestures, actions, postures, and expressions. Nonverbal social interaction inevitably involves two-way emotions and mirroring.

Human mirror-neuron system Certain cortical areas in humans can be attributed to the mirror-neuron system (MNS). They are activated during the subject's own motor acts and also, although weaker, while the subject observes a similar act performed by another person.

Literature: Http://physrev.physiology.org: Riitta Hari, Miiamaaria V. Kujala. Brain Basis of Human Social Interaction: From Concepts to Brain Imaging. http://www.psypost.org Medvizor.com Wikipedia.org www.operativeneurosurgery.com