Although social neuroscience is concerned with understanding how the brain interacts with its social environment, prevailing research in the field has primarily considered the human brain in isolation, deprived of its rich social context. Emerging work in social neuroscience that leverages tools from network analysis has begun to advance knowledge of how the human brain influences and is influenced by the structures of its social environment. In this paper, we provide an overview of key theory and methods in network analysis (especially for social systems) as an introduction for social neuroscientists who are interested in relating individual cognition to the structures of an individual’s social environments. We also highlight some exciting new work as examples of how to productively use these tools to investigate questions of relevance to social neuroscientists. We include tutorials to help with practical implementations of the concepts that we discuss. We conclude by highlighting a broad range of exciting research opportunities for social neuroscientists who are interested in using network analysis to study social systems.

中文翻译：

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社会神经科学家的社会网络分析

尽管社会神经科学关注的是了解大脑如何与其社会环境相互作用，但该领域的主流研究主要是孤立地考虑人脑，剥夺了其丰富的社会背景。利用网络分析工具的社会神经科学领域的新兴工作已经开始推进有关人类大脑如何影响其社会环境结构并受其影响的知识。在本文中，我们概述了网络分析（尤其是社会系统）的关键理论和方法，作为对将个人认知与个人社会环境结构联系起来感兴趣的社会神经科学家的介绍。我们还重点介绍了一些令人兴奋的新工作，作为如何有效地使用这些工具来研究与社会神经科学家相关的问题的示例。我们提供教程来帮助我们讨论的概念的实际实现。最后，我们为对使用网络分析研究社会系统感兴趣的社会神经科学家强调了广泛的令人兴奋的研究机会。