Recently David Skuse and Louise Gallagher, professors at the Department of Behavioural and Brain Sciences of the Institute of Child Health, University College London, London (UK), have analyzed research results of the last years on the molecular basis of social behavior to better understand the nature of relational problems of people with autism spectrum disorders.
Human social behavior develops under the influence of genetic, environmental, psychological, and cultural factors. Each person may have a different level of social cognitive competence. Social cognition comprises our ability to appropriately understand and respond to other people's social approach. The concept embraces self-knowledge and theory of mind, or the ability to think about emotions and behavior from someone else’s perspective.
The neuropeptides oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) play an important role on social cognition, affecting individual differences in parenting behavior, social recognition, and affiliative behaviors. The processes of social cognition are also supported by reward circuitry, underpinned by the dopaminergic neurotransmitter system. Reward processes play a role in the development of social skill, parenting, and pairing. Reward also influences those social interactions that require trust or altruism. The impact of emotional regulation upon social behavior is also mediated by the serotoninergic system. A specific biomolecular basis was found for the influence of emotional regulation on social behavior. In fact serotonin and norepinephrine can modulate cerebral circuitry of emotion and affective style and thus influence the engagement in an action under the spur of an emotional state.
REFERENCES
Skuse DH, Gallagher L. Genetic influences on social cognition. Pediatr Res., 2011 May; 69(5 Pt 2): 85R-91R.