Growing a Social Brain

• In Event: Growing up in a Social Context: Brain and Emotional Development From Infancy to Early Adolescence

Abstract

It has long been assumed that social animals, such as humans, are born with a brain system that has evolved to support social affiliation. However, the evidence does not necessarily support this assumption. Alternatively, neural mechanisms that support sociality needs to develop, and potentially their development depends on social interactions. In this talk, I begin by defining social animals in a new way, as those who cannot survive alone and rely on members from their group to regulate their ongoing physiology (or allostasis). The rather simple evolutionary constraint of social dependency for survival can be sufficient to make the social environment vitally salient, and to provide the ultimate driving force for socially crafted brain development and learning. I will discuss neuro-behavioral mechanisms of early mother-infant bonding and specify a set of hypotheses on the mechanisms of social development. I will suggest that profound human characteristics, including but not limited to sociality, are acquired at an early age, and continue to be shaped during childhood and adolescence, while social regulation provides the key wiring instructions that shape bonding and development.

Author

• Shir Atzil, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Presenting Author