INTRODUCTION

Diverse regions of the brain are essential for action and are often activated earlier than the action themselves; regions of the brain such as the basal ganglia (Swanson, 2000) are bound to diverse forms of cognitive actions, including prosocial ones. Diverse information molecules underlie prosocial behaviors (e.g. oxytocin, vasopressin, and serotonin).

A developmental perspective has emerged positing that neonates are rooted in the world of objects and transactions with others from birth (Kagan, 1984). Their aim is towards getting coherence in a social world; social cognitive dispositions predominate amongst other cognitive/physiological predilections essential for adaptation and coherence of action. Making sense of others is thus a core adaptation. So we come prepared to make sense of the objects around us – particularly con-specifics.

In this chapter, I discuss again corticalization of function, from a received view, not incorrect but perhaps overstated – namely that the cortex restrains the more primitive brain (e.g. amygdala). In addition, in this chapter, the role of diverse information molecules (oxytocin, CRH, dopamine, serotonin) in social approach and avoidance behaviors continues to be discussed, amidst a further understanding of both neocortical sites and amygdala function in the organization of action.

CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE NEOCORTEX

For over a century, we have known that cortical function is bound to more elaborate cognitive capacities; in fact, the nineteenth century was dominated by this realization. From a comparative perspective, the frontal cortex, for instance, makes transparent an expansion of the primate brain.