Preface -- Robin Dunbar: What's so social about the social brain? -- Steve Rogers: The neurobiology of a transformation from asocial to social life during swarm formation in desert locusts -- Jakob Bro-Jorgensen: Social neuroscience and the study of animal communication.- Jay J. van Bavel et al.: The group mind: the pervasive influence of social identity on cognition -- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy: Development and social selection in the emergence of "emotionally modern" humans -- Mark van Vugt: On faces, gazes, votes, and followers: evolutionary psychological and social neuroscience approaches to leadership -- Craig Ferris: Using awake animal imaging to understand neural circuits of emotion: studies ranging from maternal care to aggression -- Jean Decety: The neuro-evolution of empathy and caring for others: why it matters for morality.- Beatrice de Gelder and Ruud Hortensius: The many faces of the emotional body -- Kiley J. Hamlin: The origins of human morality: complex socio-moral evaluations by preverbal infants -- Ilanit Gordon: Can oxytocin improve core brain and behavioral features of Autism Spectrum Disorders in children? -- Jack van Honk et al.: Testosterone and dominance in humans: behavioral and brain mechanisms -- Subject index.

Traditionally, neuroscience has considered the nervous system as an isolated entity and largely ignored influences of the social environments in which humans and many animal species live. In fact, we now recognize the considerable impact of social structures on the operations of the brain and body. These social factors operate on the individual through a continuous interplay of neural, neuroendocrine, metabolic and immune factors on brain and body, in which the brain is the central regulatory organ, and also a malleable target of these factors. Social neuroscience investigates the biological mechanisms that underlie social processes and behavior, widely considered one of the major problem areas for the neurosciences in the 21st century, and applies concepts and methods of biology to develop theories of social processes and behavior in the social and behavioral sciences. Social neuroscience capitalizes on biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social behavior, and it uses social and behavioral constructs and data to advance theories of neural organization and function. This volume brings together scholars who work with animal and human models of social behavior to discuss the challenges and opportunities in this interdisciplinary academic field.