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SUMMARY:BEACON Seminar: Naturalistic approaches for studying social cognit
 ion in animals and humans - Ziv Williams (Harvard Medical School)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220524T140000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20220524T150000
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fc938fbb-42c3-4230-b263-29e95838d057/
DESCRIPTION:Social interactions are dynamic\, requiring individuals to und
 erstand not only how their behaviour may affect others but also how others
  may respond in return. In humans\, social interactions are also often dom
 inated by processes such as language and theory of mind which allow us to 
 communicate complex thoughts and beliefs.\n\nUnderstanding the basic neura
 l processes that underlie social behaviour or by which individuals communi
 cate has remained a challenge. Here\, we develop naturalistic approaches i
 n animals and humans to begin investigating these questions at cellular sc
 ale. First\, by developing an ethologically based group task in three-inte
 racting rhesus macaques\, we identify detailed representations of other’
 s behaviour by neurons in the prefrontal cortex\, reflecting the other’s
  identities\, their interactions\, social context\, actions\, and outcomes
 . We also show how these cells collectively represent the interaction betw
 een specific group members and how they enable mutually beneficial social 
 behaviour. Second\, by recording from neurons in the human prefrontal cort
 ex during language-based tasks\, we identify neurons that reliably encode 
 information about others’ beliefs across richly varying scenarios and th
 at distinguish self- from other-belief-related representations. By further
  following their encoding dynamics\, we also show how these cells represen
 t the contents of the others’ beliefs and accurately predict whether the
 y are true or false. Finally\, we show how these cell ensembles track ling
 uistic information during natural speech processing and how language can b
 e used to ask specific questions about the neuronal constructs that underl
 ie social reasoning. Together\, these studies reveal detailed cellular mec
 hanisms for interactive social behaviour in animals and humans and highlig
 ht the prospective use of naturalistic approaches in social neuroscience.\
 nSpeakers:\nZiv Williams (Harvard Medical School)
LOCATION:Venue to be announced
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/fc938fbb-42c3-4230-b263-29e95838d057/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:BEACON Seminar: Naturalistic approaches for studying soci
 al cognition in animals and humans - Ziv Williams (Harvard Medical School)
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