Society within the Brain
How Social Networks Interact with Our Brain, Behavior and Health as We Age

An introduction to the cognitive brain science of how we age with or without others in order to prevent dementia.

Jeanyung Chey (Edited by)

9781009663977, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 July 2025

316 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.514 kg

Society within the Brain provides insightful accounts of scientific research linking social connection with brain and cognitive aging through state-of-the-art research. This involves comprehensive social network analysis, social neuroscience, neuropsychology, psychoneuroimmunology, and sociogenomics. This book provides a scientific discourse on how a society, community, or friends and family interact with individuals' cognitive aging. Issues concerning social isolation, rapidly increasing in modern societies, and the controversy in origins of individual difference in social brain and behaviour are discussed. An integrative framework is introduced to explicate how social networks and support alleviate the effects of aging in brain health and reduce dementia risks. This book is of interest and useful to a wide readership: from gerontologists, psychologists, clinical neuroscientists and sociologists, to those involved in developing community-based interventions or public health policy for brain health, to people interested in how social life influences brain aging or in the prevention of dementia.

Introduction
Part I. Approaches to Society within the Brain: 1. A case of rapidly aging society and its dementia population Jeanyung Chey
2. Social network positions and health status in older adults Yoosik Youm and Junsol Kim
3. Social brain and how it links social intelligence and well-being Sunhae Sul and Isu Cho
4. Genomics of cognitive aging in social isolation Sung-Ha Lee and Seyul Kwak
Part II. Society Interacting with Brain, Cognition, and Health in Late Life: 5. Life course approach to cognitive aging and dementia Jeanyung Chey and Seyul Kwak
6. Enriched social network and brain function Seyul Kwak, Jeanyung Chey, and Yoosik Youm
7. Psychoneuroimmunology linking social isolation with cognitive aging Sung-Ha Lee
8. Loneliness and brain health in late life Hairin Kim and Jeanyung Chey
Part III. An Individual's Cognitive Aging with Others: Key Findings, Issues, and Implications: 9. Social relation and cognitive function in older adults Hoyoung Kim
10. Social network and the brain Yoosik Youm and Junsol Kim
11. Origins of individual differences in social behavior and social brain Isu Cho and Sunhae Sul
12. Preventing dementia with social connection Jeanyung Chey, Isu Cho, Hairin Kim, Hoyoung Kim, Seyul Kwak, Sunhae Sul, Sung-Ha Lee, and Yoosik Youm.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR]