What is the Social Brain?

The social brain refers to two primary concepts. The first is that the brains of social animals (like ourselves) contain multiple neural systems that are partly or wholly dedicated to receiving, processing, and transmitting social information. For example, we have a neural system (called the fusiform face area) dedicated to the recognition of right-side-up faces that switches off when faces are turned upside down. Upside down faces get transferred to our object recognition systems and this is why we find it much harder to immediately recognize inverted faces. Damage to the primitive core of the prefrontal cortex can result in a loss of empathy, sympathy, and compassion. These same circuits are also involved in the organization of our attachment schema and affect regulation.

Humans have also evolved to automatically communicate their states of body, emotion, and mind to one another. Research in physiology has shown that our internal organs are automatically linked to our facial expressions to give others a real-time read out of our internal biological state. We also have things called mirror neurons designed to create an internal representation of the actions, expressions, and emotions of others within our own bodies. This allows us to be able to feel our own version of what others are feeling, especially strong emotions like pain, fear, disgust, love, and joy. This is especially important for the parents of young children who need to read the primitive expressions of comfort and distress acted out by their children. These and a host of other findings serve as the foundation of our understanding of the social brain. 

The notion that “genetics is destiny,” assumes that the genes we inherit from our parents shape our bodies, brains, and minds, while experience has little influence on development. The opposite notion of “tabla rasa” (blank slate), suggested that everything we are is the result of how we have been conditioned by experience. We now know that we are born with both 1) important genetic input that guide our temperament, general health, and other important elements of our lives, and 2) many brain systems that are highly dependent on post-natal experience, especially systems involved in social relating. These systems, specifically those related to attachment and affect regulation, are of particular importance to the field of psychotherapy and are said to develop in an experience-dependent manner. 

Most of neural systems dedicated to social connectedness are a product of an interaction between our genetic inheritance and our experience. The complex wiring of our cortex is shaped by our experience within the particular relationships in which we grow up to optimize our fit into our immediate social world. As social animals, this adaptation strategy most likely, maximizes the survival of both the individual and the tribe. Of course, this is not without its problems. The brains of many children are shaped to people and situations that are not good models for survival outside the family and thus, poorly suited to long-term adaptation. This certainly describes many of the clients who come to us seeking help. Our challenge is to make their unconscious adaptational patterns conscious, and then modify them in ways more in line with their present situation and long-term goals.

Human infants are born into the most abject dependency – connection equals survival. It takes many years for us to be able to survive without parents or caretakers. Because of this, a human’s first order of business is to attach to our parents and trigger the bonding instincts in them to take care of us. We stare into their eyes, grab their fingers, smile and coo, and cry when they leave us alone, making it clear that we want and need them. For at least the first decade of life, our caretakers and immediate family are our entire world. The input we receive from these interactions teach us how to get what we want, regulate our fear, show us if we are loveable, and what we can expect from others in the future.  

Think about the game of peek a boo we play with our children. We hide our face with our hands, then expose our face, and say “peek a boo” with wide eyes, an exaggerated smile, and a high-pitched voice. The baby’s eyes and mouth open wide and then give us a big smile and maybe even an open mouth laugh. What just happened in our brains? First, the surprise and big smile stimulated metabolic activity in both the baby’s and the parent’s brain delivering extra glucose and oxygen to support learning. We both experience surges of oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin triggered by our mutual enjoyment, making us feel good and want to do it again (Again! Again!). Epigenetic processes within the baby’s brain trigger neuroanatomic growth that supports a sense of joy and creates the building blocks of long-term well-being. Epigenetics happens within the parent’s brains which increases our attachment, enhancing our health and longevity. Parenting, grand-parenting, and caring for any child turn out to be good medicine at any age. 

A good example of this is the epigenetic translation of these pleasurable experiences into the building of endorphin receptors on the baby’s amygdala. The more of these receptors we build, the more the endorphins we have in our nervous system keep the amygdala downregulated, decreasing our vulnerability to stress, anxiety, and fear. This is one of the many physiological variables related to the things like ego-strength, grit, or resilience. In stark contrast to this situation are the many children who lack quality caretakers, attentive others, or positive stimulation. Within the brains of these children, opposite biochemical and neuroanatomic processes occur that lead them to be more vulnerable to stress. This is why children with a greater number of adverse social experiences during childhood (i.e., parental psychopathology, exposure to domestic violence, etc.) are far more likely to experience psychological, physical, and adaptational difficulties later in life. Our social experiences are translated, for better and worse, into the structure of our brains and tend to stabilize over time. Early trauma is truly a gift that keeps on giving, and a suffering children often grow into a suffering adults. 

This is an excerpt from Dr. Cozolino’s book The Development of a Therapist.