The DOI matches its Crossref record; 193 of the 194 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Social Brain: Neural Basis of Social Knowledge
Open accessAbstract
Social cognition in humans is distinguished by psychological processes that allow us to make inferences about what is going on inside other people—their intentions, feelings, and thoughts. Some of these processes likely account for aspects of human social behavior that are unique, such as our culture and civilization. Most schemes divide social information processing into those processes that are relatively automatic and driven by the stimuli, versus those that are more deliberative and controlled, and sensitive to context and strategy. These distinctions are reflected in the neural structures that underlie social cognition, where there is a recent wealth of data primarily from functional neuroimaging. Here I provide a broad survey of the key abilities, processes, and ways in which to relate these to data from cognitive neuroscience.
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“The RTPJ appears to be strongly connected to other regions implicated in mental state attribution (4, 13, 28–30) and moral cognition (16, 19, 31–34), such as the left TPJ, precuneus, and medial prefrontal cortex.”
From Disruption of the right temporoparietal junction with transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces the role of beliefs in moral judgments (2010) · cites this paper as [29]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
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“These findings suggest a strong influence of the “social brain” (Adolphs 2009) on the multisensory integration underlying PPS representation.”
From Neuroanatomical correlates of peripersonal space: bridging the gap between perception, action, emotion and social cognition (2024) · cites this paper as Adolphs 2009
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“Although this idea remains contentious, there exists a network of brain regions consistently involved in social cognitive processes (Adolphs 2009, Frith 2007).”
From Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing? (2014) · cites this paper as Adolphs 2009
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In the citing paper
“known to play a crucial role in inferring the mental state and temporary goals of other persons.[ 17 , 45 ]”
From Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions (2021) · cites this paper as [17]
In the citing paper
“The body is our interface with others (see e.g., Adolphs, 2009;Decety & Lamm, 2007;Gallese, Keysers, & Rizzolatti, 2004;Saxe, 2006), and therefore it is possible that social interactions shape the experience we have of our body (Ambrosini, Blomberg, Mandrigin, & Costantini, 2013;Cardellicchio, Sinigaglia, & Costantini, 2012;Cardini, Tajadura-Jimenez, Serino, & Tsakiris, 2012;Costantini, Ambrosini,”
From Bodily ownership and self-location: Components of bodily self-consciousness (2013) · cites this paper as Adolphs, 2009
In the citing paper
“In humans, studies have shown that social network size significantly correlates with grey matter density of regions constituting the social brain”
From Baboons (Papio anubis) living in larger social groups have bigger brains. (2021) · cites this paper as Adolphs, 2009
In the citing paper
“Recent findings suggest that touch also promotes the development and connectivity of brain areas (Brauer et al., 2016; Björnsdotter et al., 2014) associated with social cognition and the “social brain” (Adolphs, 2009, Brothers, 2002, Frith, 2007).”
From The impact of atypical sensory processing on social impairments in autism spectrum disorder (2018) · cites this paper as Adolphs, 2009
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Citations
Cites
An Integrative Theory of Prefrontal Cortex Function
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- Craig AD, 2008, Handbook of Emotions, 272
- Suddendorf T, 1997, Genet. Soc. Gen. Psychol. Monogr., 123, 133
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The brain basis of emotion: a meta-analytic review
Lindquist, K. A., Wager, T. D., Kober, H., Bliss-Moreau, E., & Barrett, L. F. (2012) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x11000446 · Cited by 2,320
Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing?
Blakemore, S.-J., & Mills, K. L. (2014) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115202 · Cited by 2,264
Compassion: an evolutionary analysis and empirical review
Goetz, J. L., Keltner, D., & Simon-Thomas, E. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0018807 · Cited by 2,200
Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons
Iacoboni, M. (2009) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163604 · Cited by 1,606
Pinti, P., Tachtsidis, I., Hamilton, A. F. D. C., Hirsch, J., Aichelburg, C., Gilbert, S. J., & Burgess, P. W. (2018) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/nyas.13948 · Cited by 1,376
Metadata
- Authors
- Adolphs, R.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Adolphs, Ralph
- ORCID
- Adolphs, Ralph
- Venue
- Annual Review of Psychology
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2009-01-01
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 693-716
- ISSN
- 0066-4308 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2085
- PMC
- PMC2588649
- OpenAlex
- W2128662472
- Semantic Scholar
- 15b93199f09d393a3a660b0ec9fa4b5af8d88080
- Cited by
- 1,827
- References
- 194
- Citations by year
- 2026: 110 · 2025: 109 · 2024: 103 · 2023: 129 · 2022: 118 · 2021: 133 · 2020: 112 · 2019: 171 · 2018: 102 · 2017: 128 · 2016: 107 · 2015: 81 · 2014: 80 · 2013: 98 · 2012: 94
- FWCI
- 6.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Annual Review of Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH080721, R01MH067681)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (P01NS019632)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- social cognition, social brain, theory of mind, mentalization, automatic versus controlled processing, functional neuroimaging, social information processing, human social behavior
- MeSH terms
- Amygdala, Animals, Brain, Brain Mapping, Empathy, Biological Evolution, Facial Expression, Humans, Nerve Net, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Self Concept, Social Behavior, Prefrontal Cortex, Personal Construct Theory
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