An Integrated Single-Neuronal, Population-, Local Network- and Stimulation-Based Prefrontal Investigation of Human Social Cognition

An integrated single-neuronal, population-, local network- and stimulation-based prefrontal investigation of human social cognition This proposal aims to undertake a comprehensive single-cellular, population-, local circuit- and stimulation- based evaluation of the role that the dorsal prefrontal cortex plays in human social cognition. Despite ongoing progress in our understanding of basic elements of social behavior through animal models, astonishingly little is known about the single-neuronal and causal mechanisms that underlie human social cognition. A core network of areas comprising the dorsomedial prefrontal, dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex of the frontal lobe has been suggested to play a critical role in human social behavior; sub-serving processes that include emotional judgment, social reasoning and theory of mind. Unlike more basic sensorimotor processes, these social processes require individuals not only to represent the observed behavior or actions of others but to also infer their hidden internal states and beliefs which are inherently unobservable and unknown. These higher-order social processes play a central role in human ontogeny and are broadly affected in psychosocial conditions such as schizophrenia, depression and autism spectrum disorder. Yet, despite their importance, extraordinarily little is known about how the activities of neurons in the human brain give rise to these diverse social cognitive functions or what precise role specific prefrontal areas play. Building on our groups unique combined experience in acute single-neuronal recordings from the these dorsal prefrontal areas, social neuroscience and theory, population analyses, computational modeling and real-time stimulation techniques and by using a novel structured multi-set social task, this proposal aims to address, for the first time, vital questions about how social information is processed in humans at the cellular level, what specific cognitive processes are engaged across cortical areas, whether these processes are dissociable from more generalized cognitive mechanisms, how these key computations interrelate and, crucially, what causal contribution do neural activities in these prefrontal areas play in human social cognition at the behavioral level. Together, this systematic cross-modal, inter-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaborative effort promises to provide unprecedented new insights into human social cognition at the cellular level and offer an innovative new framework by which to investigate the prospective contribution of the dorsal prefrontal cortex to psychosocial conditions such as autism spectrum disorder.