The Development of Social EngagementNeurobiological Perspectives

Abstract

This volume presents an overview of contemporary work on certain aspects of social engagement across a range of contexts, species, and domains. Early social engagement is defined in terms of its subcomponents and a summary of a number of current biological approaches to the study of social engagement in infants and young children is given. Approach-related behaviour is introduced as an essential but understudied characteristic of temper that indicates developing processes of social engagement. A series of chapters is focused on cognitive capacities related to social-engagement development, including face processing, joint attention, language development, and social cognition. The third section of the volume describes certain contemporary works on social engagement processes in various mammalian species. The chapters deal with the neurobiology of social bonds and material behaviour and certain aspects of play. These demonstrate the current comparative work on the processes of social engagement in juveniles and adults, specifically on neurochemical mechanisms. Evolutionary concepts in social engagement are also presented. The last three chapters focus on two developmental disorders signified by deficits or deviations in social engagement: impairments in social engagement in autism and the unique profile of social engagement in individuals with Williams syndrome. Finally, recent work on some mechanisms involved in the development of difficulties associated with emotional and social functioning in children brought up in institutional environments is summarized.