Kathleen Casto
Humans possess a latent yet fundamental desire for two paradoxical needs: social closeness and social comparison. Efforts to achieve or avoid these needs are influenced by the endocrine system, a key mediator connecting the social environment and brain systems underlying motivation. In this talk, I will introduce a two-dimensional model of social positioning in which a horizontal, social closeness axis represents the drive to move towards or away from others and a vertical, social comparison axis represents the drive for relative status above or below others. I will then discuss research from my lab that shows how hormones mediate behavior along these axes. Bioavailable levels of steroid hormones like testosterone, cortisol, and progesterone, and their transient response to social encounters, may play a role in driving behavior into one of the four distinct quadrants of this social positioning model. Further, I will share some of my new research that explores how these hormones influence social positioning behavior via their implicit influence over attention and reward salience networks in the brain. These hormone-brain dynamics illuminate new pathways for understanding why and how we come together or fall apart; and achieve or avoid social status. Beyond the basic science, the hormone-brain dynamics of social positioning have translational relevance for mental and physical health outcomes linked to “hormonal sensitivity.”
Kathleen Casto, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Psychological Sciences Department at Kent State University. Dr. Casto is an interdisciplinary biopsychologist and neuroscientist with expertise in hormone-brain-behavior relationships, hormonal factors related to women’s health, and biosocial models of status, competition, and social stress. She received a BA in Psychology and Chemistry from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, MS in Psychological Science from James Madison University, and PhD in Psychology from Emory University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oregon that was a jointly supported by the US Army and the National Research Council. A student-athlete in college, she maintains an identity as a “professor-athlete,” as both a source of wellness and as inspiration for her research interests in the mind-body connection.