Stimulating the Social Brain

Brain stimulation techniques are emerging as useful tools for neurological and psychiatric patients, enriching the landscape of therapeutic possibilities. After the breakthrough of deep brain stimulation in treating motor symptoms such as tremor and dyskinesia, recent studies aim to modulate specific brain regions aiming to shape non-motor abilities. Of these, social cognition in particular ranks amongst the top predictors for mental and physical health and neuroimaging studies have unveiled neural mechanisms involved in successful social cognition and interaction. This increasing knowledge on the biology of the ‘social brain’ provides an exciting starting point to develop innovative treatment approaches. However, previous attempts at implementation have mostly shown inconsistent effects, the causes of which are mainly seen in the variability of stimulation strategies and the small size of study populations.

While recent clinical trials using brain stimulation are aiming to investigate increasing numbers of patients, it is essential to build on robust neurobiological and methodological expertise. As such, multimodal structural and functional neuroimaging studies provide a wealth of information, the analysis of which requires advanced statistical models. Yet, even the best predictions about brain function cannot be causally verified – nor lead to clinically meaningful effects - if these tools are used without precision. For example, the effects of non-invasive stimulation techniques have historically been subject to strong sources of error, for example without feedback on the exact timing or location of stimulation.

To inspire state-of-the-art stimulation strategies targeting the social brain, this Frontiers Research Topic aims at connecting recent insights from social neuroscience, brain mapping, as well as brain stimulation. Since inter-individual variability has been identified as a major challenge in each of these areas, one particular focus will be on individual stimulation effects. Therefore, we encourage contributions in the form of reviews, original research articles, opinion and method papers, that address the question of how social cognitive processes may be shaped by neuromodulation. In addition to work that already combines stimulation methods and concepts of social cognition, we explicitly welcome reports contributing expertise and insights from each single field, i.e. clinical questions, behavioral observations, electrophysiological and computational methods, and evidence from neuroimaging, from which future collaboration may benefit.

Together, this Frontiers Research Topic will illuminate the potential of brain stimulation to shape social cognition and behavior, paving the way for transformative interventions in mental and physical health.