How does the brain deal with the social world?

Abstract

It is only relatively recently that the search for the biological basis of social cognition has started. It is still unknown just how biological factors, from genes to brain processes, interact with environmental variables to produce individual differences in social competence and in pathology of social communication. It may seem over-ambitious to work out how connections can be made between sophisticated social behaviour and basic neurophysiological mechanisms. However, examples already exist. The neural basis of social processes such as deception and morality are now being studied by cognitive neuroscientists. In this review, we summarize recent work that has illuminated the neuro-cognitive basis of complex social interaction and communication in humans.