The social brain

Abstract

The term social brain was introduced into neuropsychology by Gazzaniga (1985) in his studies of emotional and social communication disturbances after right- hemisphere damages.Later this term was used to show how the human brain processes social infor- mation and regulates the mind as a whole (Brothers, 1990; Brune, Ribbert, & Schiefenhovel, 2003; Dunbar, Gamble, & Gowlett, 2010; Insel & Fernald, 2004).Two theories are used to explain the organization of social cognition; the first is theory of mind (Weed, McGregor, Nielsen, Roepstorff, & Frith, 2010). In this theory, social cognition is understood as a typical module, separated from any other processes, that operates with specific knowledge. People have a definite theory about inner, nonobservable mental states that generate observable behaviors. Theory of mind is closely related to, or even dependent on, communication and language. All acts of communication, such as using metaphors, humor, irony, and sarcastic phrases and having the conversational ability to make issues under- standable to others, require constant awareness of the participants' states of mind (their knowledge, intentions, and beliefs). This theory also postulates that activat- ing the theory of mind requires mobilization of some executive subsystems, such as cognitive plasticity, working memory, the inhibition of selected stimuli for the benefit of others, and the ability to use representations and metarepresentations (Aboulafia-Brakha, Christe, Martory, & Annoni, 2011).Disturbances of social cognition, an inability to understand the feelings of others, which is a manifestation of a lack of theory of mind, is one of the ex- planations for the behavioral disturbances in autism (Brownell, Griffin, Winner, Friedman, & Happe, 2000; Nikolskaya et al., 2005). Neurovisualization techniques reveal in these patients an aborted development of the dendritic structure of the limbic system and an increase in the number of abnormal cells in the cerebellum (Joseph, 1999).The second model for the organization of social cognition is simulation theory (Adolphs, Damasio, Tranel, Cooper, & Damasio, 2000), which proposes that although mental states of others are not directly observable, it is possible to use our imagination and our mental states as a model for simulating the mental states of others. Simulation theory is connected to the discovery of neurons, which are localized in the premotor ventral cortex and partly in the parietal lobe (Rizzolatti, Fadiga, Gallese, & Fogassi, 1996); mirror neurons are activated by the subject's own movement but also by observation of another person's movement. Mirror neu- rons are a kind of translator of observable behavior to inner, mental states.Social cognition has the following main functions:* integration of a complex situation into a meaningful whole, emotionally and socially;* evaluation of the situation on the basis of moral behavior;* self-regulation.The relationship between social cognition and social behavior is still largely unknown or is very complex and involved in connections with other regulatory processes. It is highly probable that there is no simple translation of social cogni- tion into social behavior. But pathology in those two components leads to the in- terpersonal maladjustment of patients with brain injury. Five aspects of the functioning of social cognition and five groups of evidence can be analyzed in studies of social cognition and the social brain:1. the negative consequences of brain damage on social behavior and social cognition;2. the social features of early-childhood development;3. the double interaction between brain maturation and the formation of mental functions;4. the negative consequences of social neglect on brain development;5. the social and cultural specificity of neuropsychological assessment methods.Negative consequences of Brain Damage on social Behavior and social cognitionNeuropsychological studies focusing on the location of brain structures whose failure specifically interferes with social functioning have emphasized the regulative role of the brain's frontal lobes and right hemisphere (Borod, Koff, & Caron, 1983; Eslinger & Geder, 2000; Herzyk, 2000; Lezak, 1986; Malloy, Bihrle, & Duffy, 1993; Stuss & Benson, 1984; Tompkins, 1997). …