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 Dualism is the perspective that the mind operates independently of the body and is not constrained by it. Understanding the exact nature of the relationship between the two is called the mind/body problem.

 Contemporary social psychologists view the mind as embodied or inextricably bound up with the body; the social brain is now seen as the default state of mind and mental processing.

 The tripartite brain is composed of the reptilian, mammalian, and higher brains. The social brain hypothesis holds that increasingly large social networks produced pressures that selected for more sophisticated thinking and larger brains. The ecological hypotheses explain the larger brains as caused by nonsocial factors, but they have less empirical support than does the social brain hypothesis.

 Neurons are the basic units of the brain and nervous system and have three major sections: soma, dendrites, and axons. Neurons communicate via neurotransmitter messages that are released across the synaptic gap, from the axon from one neuron to the dendrites of others.

 The roles of five key neurotransmitters are discussed in the chapter: dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, and acetylcholine.

 Structures of the brain that are key to understanding social behavior include the prefrontal cortex, limbic system, thalamus and hypothalamus, and insula.

 Social neuroscience is the interdisciplinary field devoted to the study of neural, hormonal, cellular, and genetic mechanisms and to the study of the associations and influences between social and biological levels of organization.

 Social neuroscience uses a variety of methods to investigate the neurobiology of social behavior, and since each has its strengths and weaknesses, multiple methods are often used.

 fMRI has been proposed as a method for detecting deception, but research has not supported its use.

 The brain is clearly hardwired as a result of evolutionary processes; nevertheless, it is also surprisingly flexible or plastic, as it is capable of being rewired throughout the life cycle.

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