Bridging the Gap Between Neuroscience and the Social World: Theory, Research, and Mechanisms in Social Neuroscience

Extract

Essays in Social Neuroscience. John T. Cacioppo and Gary G. Berntson (Eds.). 2004. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 168 pp., $32.00/£20.95.

Essays in Social Neuroscience, edited by John T. Cacioppo and Gary G. Berntson, is a slim collection of highly engaging and—for the overextended neuropsychologist—enjoyably brief essays surveying current research and theory in the emerging field of social neuroscience. Each contributor attests to the variety of examples of research bridging the historic divide between neuroscience and social psychology. For neuropsychologists, this volume offers enlightening demonstrations of the potential for traditional methods in neuroscience to speak to the complex and reciprocal interplay between neural systems and the social world. From Sue Carter's essay “Oxytocin and the Prairie Vole: A Love Story” to Shelley E. Taylor's contribution “The Accidental Neuroscientist: Positive Resources, Stress Responses, and Course of Illness,” these essays speak to such diverse issues as interpersonal attraction, loyalty, emotional reactivity, and environmental contributions to autoimmune disease. Some essays speak more to the potential for bridging the gap than to demonstrated success in this effort, but those essays remain pleasurable, rewarding reads. The large majority of essays, four of which are described in more detail below, beautifully exemplify the fruitfulness of this area of inquiry.