Impact Of Social Interactions On The Behavioral Neuroscience

Socialization has been an intricate part of human society for as long as the human race has been alive. How we interact with each other- how we choose what to say, what to do- in certain situations in a social place. Humans recognize that we have a brain in which our conscious and subconscious affect what decisions we make and that our brain is wired in a certain way in which we go through a series of steps before we act on something, but how does this come into play with how we interact with others in social situations? Behavioral Neuroscience is, by Oxford Neuroscience’s definition, the study of the brain mechanisms underlying behavior. Furthermore, to what extent do social interactions impact behavioral neuroscience?

First, we must deconstruct behavioral neuroscience. More specifically, behavioral neuroscience is “concerned with the neural and biological bases of behavior, including the effects of lesions and electrical stimulation, recording of electrical activity, genetic factors, hormonal influences, neurotransmitter and chemical factors, neuroanatomical substrates, effects of drugs, developmental processes, and environmental factors.” (Sciencedirect). This means behavioral neuroscience studies how our neural systems contribute to our behavior in multitudes of situations. This is of major importance to our society as we understand that social relations are a substantial part of our daily human life, but are not able to fully connect how our neural systems play a role in our behavior in social places, which can negatively impact our understanding of social issues (Social Neuroscience, Schutt). As written in the book “Social Neuroscience”, by Russel Schutt and others, the authors discuss the role neural sections of our brain have on our behavior. The text explains how a lack of cognitive skills in those with mental disorders (primarily focusing on psychopathology) can arise problems in neural functioning in social places, as those with mental disorders may rely on other brain regions that do not specifically work with social functioning to assist in their “dysfunction in social systems”. As one can imagine this creates a problem with their social functioning, furthering their social interactions to become less adequate.

Next, we must dive more deeply into behavioral neuroscience, deconstructing social cognition. Social cognition is defined as “the study of how people process social information, especially it's encoding, storage, retrieval, and application to social situations” (Science Daily). This equates to how specific neural regions of the brain are responsible for social cognition decisions, more thoroughly intertwining the branches of neuroscience and behavioral sciences. Relating to our social recognition after birth, the quote from “Social Interactions: Evolution, Psychology and Benefits” written by Arnaud Aubert, shows how our neural processing decides how we interact with people in our environment. “Only a few weeks after birth, newborns address more smiles to their caregivers and other people than to objects, suggesting that they discriminate social from nonsocial entities.” (Social Interactions). This excerpt explains how even as newborns, there is a proven connection between different regions of our brain assisting in the development of our social skills with people in our surroundings. Not only does this help further the growth of behavioral sciences in the adolescence period, but helps the neuroscience community strengthen the ties of how crucial different regions of our brain are to determining our social cognitive processing.