This Project investigates the basic computations at work in making simple social decisions, and contrasts them with simple non-social decisions (e.g., ones based on the value of juice or money, rather than the value of other people). It sets the stage for all the others in investigating how social reward is represented and compares to nonsocial reward. An example of a non-social decision is choosing what to drink by pushing one of several buttons on a soda dispensing machine, an example of a social decision is choosing what person to call to go on a date. Here we address these questions: Are there regions in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex that encode stimulus values at the time of choice, and experienced (hedonic) values at the time of outcome, in the social domain (seeing smiling or beautiful faces), as they do in the nonsocial case (getting juice when thirsty)? Are there neurons specialized for valuation of social stimuli, or do the same cells encode value in social and non-social decisions? Does the valuation of different types of social stimuli require specific sub-circuits? And how are individual differences between people reflected in these processes? We will address these questions by carrying out parallel experiments in humans and rhesus monkeys, using the complementary techniques of fMRI and electrophysiological recording in both species, and using a variety of basic social and non-social stimuli. Comparisons will be made across species and across single-unit, local field potential, and BOLD-fMRI data, as well as with data from the other Projects and across individual differences.

Public Health Relevance

Many mental illnesses are associated with the most disabling dysfunction in the social domain. For instance, people with autism are impaired in their social interactions. A major limitation in our understanding of those disorders is that we do not yet understand how social reward signals are processed in the brain, and how they guide behavior This Project constitutes the foundation of that investigation and will have relevance for the ultimate diagnosis, management and treatment of mental illnesses.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Specialized Center (P50)
Project #
5P50MH094258-03
Application #
8661295
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-ERB-S)
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2014-05-01
Budget End
2015-04-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$445,383
Indirect Cost
$161,114
Name
California Institute of Technology
Department
Type
DUNS #
009584210
City
Pasadena
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
91125
Barrash, Joseph; Stuss, Donald T; Aksan, Nazan et al. (2018) ""Frontal lobe syndrome""? Subtypes of acquired personality disturbances in patients with focal brain damage. Cortex 106:65-80
Beadle, Janelle N; Paradiso, Sergio; Tranel, Daniel (2018) Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Is Critical for Helping Others Who Are Suffering. Front Neurol 9:288
Kliemann, Dorit; Adolphs, Ralph (2018) The social neuroscience of mentalizing: challenges and recommendations. Curr Opin Psychol 24:1-6
Rutishauser, Ueli; Aflalo, Tyson; Rosario, Emily R et al. (2018) Single-Neuron Representation of Memory Strength and Recognition Confidence in Left Human Posterior Parietal Cortex. Neuron 97:209-220.e3
Pauli, Wolfgang M; Nili, Amanda N; Tyszka, J Michael (2018) A high-resolution probabilistic in vivo atlas of human subcortical brain nuclei. Sci Data 5:180063
Bowren, Mark D; Croft, Katie E; Reber, Justin et al. (2018) Choosing spouses and houses: Impaired congruence between preference and choice following damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Neuropsychology 32:280-303
Lin, Chujun; Adolphs, Ralph; Alvarez, R Michael (2018) Inferring Whether Officials Are Corruptible From Looking at Their Faces. Psychol Sci 29:1807-1823
Dubois, Julien; Galdi, Paola; Han, Yanting et al. (2018) Resting-state functional brain connectivity best predicts the personality dimension of openness to experience. Personal Neurosci 1:
Adolphs, Ralph; Gläscher, Jan; Tranel, Daniel (2018) Searching for the neural causes of criminal behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:451-452
Wang, Oliver; Lee, Sang Wan; O'Doherty, John et al. (2018) Model-based and model-free pain avoidance learning. Brain Neurosci Adv 2:2398212818772964

Showing the most recent 10 out of 158 publications