Thursday, August 26, 2021

What Happens in Boulder Stays in Boulder

I am taking my first trip since January 2020!

I'll be visiting CU Boulder to give an applied-mathematics colloquium. This will also be only my second in-person presentation (I gave one at IPAM a couple of weeks ago) since the start of the pandemic.

I haven't been to Boulder since around 2003 or 2004. I am looking forward to my trip, although traveling is even more nerve-wracking than before.

Friday, August 06, 2021

"Social Network Analysis for Social Neuroscientists"

A paper of mine that was posted in advanced access more than a year ago has now finally been posted in final form. It is a survey and perspective article on social network analysis for social neuroscientists. Here are some details.

Title: Social Network Analysis for Social Neuroscientists

Authors: Elisa C. Baek, Mason A. Porter, and Carolyn Parkinson

Abstract: 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.