This is a book on expanding regulatory concepts in cognitive/physiological neuroscience to the context of social adaptation and evolution.

Our evolutionary history is rich in cephalic expansion and innervation into more and more regions of the body, and the corresponding regulation of those regions. The evolutionary history reflects both regulation of the internal and the social milieu.

In recent years, an interest in understanding something about well-being within the context of competition and cooperation has re-emerged within the biological and neural sciences. Darwin understood that prosocial inclinations are built into cephalic regulation, and that set the stage for investigating the ways in which social adaptive mechanisms are involved in establishing and maintaining well-being.

In a previous book, Rethinking Homeostasis, I discussed the concept of allostasis from the point of view of regulation of the internal milieu. In this book, I extend the concept of allostasis to the interaction of the individual with the social environment and its influence on regulation of the internal milieu. The book is grounded in an evolutionary perspective with regard to cephalic functioning – specifically to cephalic responses in managing external resources while maintaining internal viability.

An important recent trend in the neurosciences has proven fruitful and warranted: the burgeoning field of social neuroscience. This new field places an emphasis on the biological aspects of social science, including the hormonal regulation of adaptive behaviors as can be seen in the effects of hormones on the brain in generating behavioral responses that serve regulatory needs, including those knotted to the social milieu.