How Does the Social World Get Under the Skin? Social Isolation and Health John T. Cacioppo, University of Chicago

Abstract: Social isolation is as large a risk factor for broad-based morbidity and mortality as smoking. Yet neither social nor medical science alone has explained this effect. This research illustrates how combining social and neural levels of analyses can answer the question of how does the social world get under the skin.

Temperament Influences Automatic and Control Processes Underlying Social Development.
Nathan A. Fox, University of Maryland, and Heather A. Henderson, University of Miami

Abstract: Recent approaches to temperament include assessment of executive attention and inhibitory control with regard to their involvement in the modulation of reactive responses. These processes involve maturation of prefrontal brain regions, and differences in their development affect social behavior. These studies will illustrate the influences of temperament on developing social cognition.

The Common Neural Bases of the Experience and Self-Regulation of Physical Pain, Social Threat Cues, and Interpersonal Rejection: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Approach
Matthew Lieberman, University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract: In a series of three fMRI studies it was found that pain stimulation, social rejection, and the presentation of African-American faces produced limbic activations in anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala. Self-regulation of these phenomenologically distinct affective responses was consistently associated with right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex activations.

The Amygdala and Race: Linking Affective Neuroscience and Social Evaluation
Liz Phelps, New York University

Abstract: Research in affective neuroscience has emphasized the role of the amygdala in emotional learning and evaluation. This discussion will cover how understanding of amygdala can be extended to the evaluation of social groups defined by race. These studies suggest that both amygdala and behavioral responses race evaluation are reflections of social learning.

A special social neuroscience poster session also will be held in conjunction with this symposium.