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.