What's So Social About the Social Brain?

In trying to understand the neurobiology of sociality, we face a problem over the kinds of behavioural indices we can use in experiments. The focus of most research has been on economic games or the socio-cognitive processes involved in dyadic interactions (e.g., theory of mind or prosocial/altruistic behaviour). These largely reflect causal interactions between strangers. However, the nature of primate (and hence human) sociality, as reflected in the social brain hypothesis, is more complex and involves long-term bonded relationships that allow individuals to maintain several social layers in their network simultaneously. Identifying suitable tests that can be used in either cognitive or neuroimaging experiments is challenging. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014