Neuroscience of Social Behavior and Emotional Disorders (NSBED) - Lectures (Universiteit Utrecht)

Social neuroscience is a combination of sociology, psychology and neuroscience.

The social brain is non-modular: social behavior is the result of a network.

Evolution of social (and non-social) behavior:

• Bigger brains lead to changes in both social and non-social intelligence
• Alternative (social intelligence hypothesis): social pressure to outwit peers may lead

Highlights of paper by Porcelli et al.:

• The human brain shows levels of specialization for social stimuli processing
• Social brain could be affected by several psychiatric disorders
• Mechanisms underlying social dysfunction are largely similar across disorders
• Social dysfunction and social withdrawal may represent a transdiagnostic domain

The core message: complex social

Social Intelligence hypothesis: to outsmart the other, stronger animals, humans have to join forces. The ability to understand and predict complex social interactions is the main pressure for human intellectual development.

According to Haxby’s model of face encoding, you can divide a core system and an extended system:

• Core: coding of basic features

We have this bias that smell is not important to us, probably because we find it hard to name them.

What’s remarkable about the smell brain autonomy?

• There is limbic overlap, which is not surprising since smells can carry emotional value
• Ipsilateral projection
• No thalamic intermediary: the thalamus is processed without thalamic

What is a relationship? Just interaction is not enough. There has to be distress and longing in separation, and a sense of well-being in presence. Also known as social bonds.

Relationships have health benefits.

Love is the emotion associated with being in an attachment relationship.

Sternberg’s Triangular theory -  love consists of