ABSTRACT
Chapter 9 explores the interdisciplinary field of health neuroscience, which focuses on the reciprocal relationships between the brain and overall health. Health neuroscience includes features of health psychology and social-affective neuroscience. Health neuroscience takes an activist approach, hoping to work alongside the medical and public health communities to improve the health of the population. The methods of health neuroscience feature a general search for biomarkers, or indications that distinguish between typical and unhealthy processes and conditions. To meet this goal, health neuroscience relies on many of the same methods as other areas of neuroscience, but at a much larger scale. This need for scale is being met by the formation of large research consortiums, like ENIGMA. The chapter reviews several topics of interest to health neuroscientists, including stress, the neurological implications of COVID-19, and loneliness. Neuroscience contributions to health behaviors, such as smoking, nutrition, alcohol use, and exercise are evaluated. In particular, the brain’s roles as a mediator, moderator, or predictor of health behaviors are explored.
