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In the last decades, psychoneuroendocrineimmunology research has made relevant contributions to the fields of neuroscience, psychobiology, epigenetics, molecular biology, and clinical research by studying the effect of stress on human health and highlighting the close interrelations between psyche, brain, and bodily systems. It is now well recognized that chronic stress can alter the physiological cross‐talk between brain and biological systems, leading to long‐lasting maladaptive effects (allostatic overload) on the nervous, immune, endocrine, and metabolic systems, which compromises stress resiliency and health. Stressful conditions in early life have been associated with profound alterations in cortical and subcortical brain regions involved in emotion regulation and the salience network, showing relevant overlap with different psychiatric conditions. This paper provides a summary of the available literature concerning the notable effects of stress on the brain and immune system. We highlight the role of epigenetics as a mechanistic pathway mediating the influences of the social and physical environment on brain structure and connectivity, the immune system, and psycho‐physical health in psychiatric diseases. We also summarize the evidence regarding the effects of stress management techniques (mainly psychotherapy and meditation practice) on clinical outcomes, brain neurocircuitry, and immune‐inflammatory network in major psychiatric diseases. In the last decades, Psychoneuroendocrineimmunology research has made relevant contributions to the fields of neuroscience, psychobiology, epigenetics, molecular biology and clinical research by studying the effect of stress on human health and highlighting the close interrelations between psyche, brain, and bodily systems. This paper provides a summary of the available literature concerning the notable effects of stress on the brain and immune system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we identify research possibilities for organizational cognitive neuroscience that emerge from the papers in this special issue. We emphasize the intriguing finding that the papers share a common theme—the use of cognitive neuroscience to investigate the role of emotions in organizational behavior; this suggests a research agenda in its own right. We conclude the article by stressing that there is much yet to discover about how the mind works, especially in organizational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad set of brain regions has been associated with the experience and training of mindfulness. Many of these regions lie within key intrinsic brain networks, including the executive control, salience, and default networks. In this paper, we review the existing literature on the cognitive neuroscience of mindfulness through the lens of network science. We describe the characteristics of the intrinsic brain networks implicated in mindfulness and summarize the relevant findings pertaining to changes in functional connectivity (FC) within and between these networks. Convergence across these findings suggests that mindfulness may be associated with increased FC between two regions within the default network: the posterior cingulate cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Additionally, extensive meditation experience may be associated with increased FC between the insula and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. However, little consensus has emerged within the existing literature owing to the diversity of operational definitions of mindfulness, neuroimaging methods, and network characterizations. We describe several challenges to develop a coherent cognitive neuroscience of mindfulness and to provide detailed recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas much of research in music and neuroscience is aimed at understanding the mechanisms by which the human brain facilitates music, emerging interest in the neuromusic community aims to translate basic music research into clinical and educational applications. In the present paper, we explore the problems of poor pitch perception and production from both neurological and developmental/educational perspectives. We begin by reviewing previous and novel findings on the neural regulation of pitch perception and production. We then discuss issues in measuring singing accuracy consistently between the laboratory and educational settings. We review the Seattle Singing Accuracy Protocol-a new assessment tool that we hope can be adopted by cognitive psychologists as well as music educators-and we conclude with some suggestions that the present interdisciplinary approach might offer for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central issue when designing multidimensional biological and psychosocial interventions for children who are exposed to multiple developmental risks is identification of the age period(s) in which such interventions will have the strongest and longest lasting effects (sensitive periods). In this paper, we review nutritional, neuroscientific, and psychological evidence on this issue. Nutritional evidence is used to identify nutrient-sensitive periods of age-linked dimensions of brain development, with specific reference to iron deficiency. Neuroscience evidence is used to assess the importance of timing of exposures to environmental stressors for maintaining neural, neuroendocrine, and immune systems integrity. Psychological evidence illustrates the sensitivity of cognitive and social-emotional development to contextual risk and protective influences encountered at different ages. Evidence reviewed documents that the early years of life are a sensitive period when biological or psychosocial interventions or exposure to risk or protective contextual influences can produce unique long-term influences upon human brain, neuroendocrine, and cognitive or psychosocial development. However, the evidence does not identify the early years as the sole sensitive time period within which to have a significant influence upon development. Choice of age(s) to initiate interventions should be based on what outcomes are targeted and what interventions are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In various paradigms of modern neurosciences of music, experts of Western classical music have displayed superior brain architecture when compared with individuals without explicit training in music. In this paper, we show that chord violations embedded in musical cadences were neurally processed in a facilitated manner also by musicians trained in Finnish folk music. This result, obtained by using early right anterior negativity (ERAN) as an index of harmony processing, suggests that tonal processing is advanced in folk musicians by their long-term exposure to both Western and non-Western music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociophysiology was a term used early in the history of sociology and then again 25 years ago to describe interactions between the 'social' and the 'biological' worlds. Social scientists had largely viewed biology and the brain as a 'black box' that was not an active aspect of their work or theories. A landmark, unpublished conference in 1986 brought together social scientists and biologists dedicated to the idea that bringing sociological conceptualizations and approaches together with those of physiology might create new ways to understand human behavior. The umbrella question for sociophysiology was dual: how do social processes impact the physiology of the organism, and how does that altered physiology affect future social behavior? This paper summarizes that conference with the goal of providing a glimpse into the early history of social neuroscience and to demonstrate the variety of individuals and interests that were present at the emergence of this new field. The late Patricia R. Barchas organized and chaired the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence has long been considered a turbulent time; beginning with large changes in hormonal levels and consequent bodily changes, as well as changes in behavior. Recently, neuroscience studies have contributed to this picture of turbulence. We now know that the brain undergoes profound transformation during the teenage years. This paper focuses on how the social brain—the network of brain regions involved in understanding other people and self-awareness—develops during adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper briefly describes and contrasts two different motivations crucially involved in decision making and cooperation, namely fairness-based and compassion-based motivation. Whereas both can lead to cooperation in comparable social situations, we suggest that they are driven by fundamentally different mechanisms and, overall, predict different behavioral outcomes. First, we provide a brief definition of each and discuss the relevant behavioral and neuroscientific literature with regards to cooperation in the context of economic games. We suggest that, whereas both fairness- and compassion-based motivation can support cooperation, fairness-based motivation leads to punishment in cases of norm violation, while compassion-based motivation can, in cases of defection, counteract a desire for revenge and buffer the decline into iterative noncooperation. However, those with compassion-based motivation alone may get exploited. Finally, we argue that the affective states underlying fairness-based and compassion-based motivation are fundamentally different, the former driven by anger or fear of being punished and the latter by a wish for the other person's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chapter starts with a historical overview of the subject of narcissism in psychoanalysis. Some sociophilosophical definitions of narcissism are explained and the connection to self psychology is described. It is especially referred to Honneth's Struggle for Recognition, which is related to the need for selfobject experiences. An outline of different concepts concerning narcissism, especially in the European psychoanalytic tradition, follows and leads to a clearer understanding of Kohut's conception of the self and its selfobjects. Because self psychology can often be understood as applied developmental psychology, useful links to attachment research are described and the move to the level of representation by mentalization is clarified. Further development of self psychology in the direction of intersubjectivity helps to supply connections to systems theory. Recently developed theories of empathy with reference to neurobiological findings provide a dynamic perspective of the activation of empathy. Thus, empathy seems to be better understood as a sort of contagion on which cognitive cortical processes are superimposed. Finally, the therapeutic process in psychoanalytic self psychology is portrayed. This process implies a disruption and repair process by which transmuting internalization can take place. More current theories of self psychology view this process in its essence intersubjectively as a co-construction between patient and analyst. The paper concludes with some hints for a paradigm shift in the direction of a more holistic understanding of the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid advancement of neuroimaging methodology and its growing availability has transformed neuroscience research. The answers to many questions that we ask about how the brain is organized depend on the quality of data that we are able to obtain about the locations, dynamics, fluctuations, magnitudes, and types of brain activity and structural changes. In this review an attempt is made to take a snapshot of the cutting edge of a small component of the very rapidly evolving field of neuroimaging. For each area covered, a brief context is provided along with a summary of a few of the current developments and issues. Then, several outstanding papers, published in the past year or so, are described, providing an example of the directions in which each area is progressing. The areas covered include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), voxel-based morphometry (VBM), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), optical imaging, and positron emission tomography (PET). More detail is included on fMRI; its subsections include fMRI interpretation, new fMRI contrasts, MRI technology, MRI paradigms and processing, and endogenous oscillations in fMRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This volume presents the proceedings of the symposium entitled Strategies for Risk Communication: Evolution, Evidence, Experience. The symposium was held in Montauk, Long Island, New York on May 15–17, 2006. It explored practical methods and robust theories of risk communication informed by recent research in risk perception, neuroscience, and the evolutionary social sciences. The symposium focused on what experimental, survey, and brain imaging research has uncovered about how humans process and perceive uncertainty and risks and what the evolutionary history of humans suggests about how we understand and respond to risks. The purpose of the symposium and of this collection of papers is to begin to synthesize the findings from these diverse fields and inform the development of practical strategies for risk communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroscience promises to act as a catalyst, in the longer run, in seeking re-unification of the fragmented social sciences (e.g., political science and economics) and social action subjects (e.g., public administration and business administration) that concern governance. Neuroscience can achieve this because it reveals that taken-for-granted concepts, and the language used to express them, should be challenged. What should be sought is a language called in this paper Neuro-Gov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to a series of articles on "Disorders and Plasticity," which was the theme of the Neuroscience and Music (Neuromusic) conference in Montreal, Quebec. One of the papers is related to music neuroscience research which has now arrived. Another paper is concerning the gap between applied and basic research which can be filled by collaborations.