The brain
is a world consisting of a number of unexplored continents and great stretches
of unknown territory.... To know the brain is equivalent to ascertaining the
material course of thought and will, to discovering the intimate history of
life in its perpetual duel with external forces.
- Santiago Ramón y
Cajal
By Ramon y Cajal’s criteria, we hardly know the brain at
all. Despite seventy years having passed, there remains much to be explored. How
do we understand, perceive, and represent other people? How do we learn to
trust and grow to love? Why is
loneliness painful and helping others rewarding? Considering our intensely
social nature, our modest understanding of the underpinnings of the social mind
is a glaring gap in our knowledge. This is a gap which the emerging field of
social cognitive neuroscience (SCN) hopes to fill (Adolphs, 2003). SCN refers
to the study of the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition. It is an
interdisciplinary field that draws on methods from the more established
traditions of social psychology and cognitive neuroscience (Ochsner, 2007; Ochsner & Lieberman, 2001). While
in the past, SCN have been largely limited to lesion studies and
pharmacological manipulations, methods
such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) now allow for the
non-invasive measurement of brain activation with reasonable spatial
resolution. Of particular interest is the recently developed technique of
hyperscanning, a method by which multiple subjects are simultaneously scanned
while engaging in mutual social interactions (Montague et el., 2002). Such
techniques provide a better approximation to real life in SCN studies, and hold
great promise in furthering our understanding of the neural basis of social
behavior (Adolphs, 2003).
The addition of techniques such as fMRI and hyperscanning
to the toolbox of the social cognitive neuroscientist has generated much
deserved excitement in the field. However, social cognitive neuroscientists
would do well to be mindful of the caveats associated with SCN. As with any
interdisciplinary work, relative non-expertise in one domain may leave experts
in another to misinterpret data to reach unwarranted conclusions. This is
especially dangerous in SCN, where many investigators are trained primarily in
one of SCNs two parent disciplines (Dovidio, Pearson & Orr, 2008).
Investigators in the field should recognize that giving a social psychologist
an fMRI scanner does not necessarily make good social cognitive neuroscience.
Similarly, social cognitive neuroscience is more than merely adding social
stimuli into cognitive neuroscience paradigms. Neither is it an exercise of
brain mapping, where we try to associate certain brain areas with certain
cognitive processes. What then, might be a good way to approach SCN? This paper proposes three assumptions and
goals that it hopes will guide SCN studies.
Three assumptions:
1. Social
cognition has a firm neuroanatomical basis. (Dunbar & Shultz, 2007; Van
Overwalle, 2009)
2. Social
cognition is driven not only by specific social stimuli, but also social
contexts and situations. (Lieberman, 2005)
3. Good
theories should find supporting evidence in both social psychology and
cognitive neuroscience (Ochsner, 2007)
Three goals:
1. Design
experiments informed by past findings in social psychology and cognitive
neuroscience
2. Search
for converging evidence from neurological data as well as behavioral results
3. Formulate
theories that address underlying processes rather than brain areas involved in
social cognition
