2020 Seed Grant
Anirvan S. Nandy, Ph.D.
Yale University
The Serota Family Seed Grant
How do social interactions dynamically shape the neural circuits of cognition? Maps of the physical and social environment (“cognitive maps”) in the brain have been theorized to be central to cognition. In highly social species like humans, cognitive computations frequently occur in social contexts. However, it remains unknown how social contexts shape cognitive maps, especially in the primate brain. This knowledge may ultimately provide unprecedented perspectives on cognitive disorders in the human brain. The overarching goal of our proposal is to create a foundational understanding of the impact of social context on cognitive maps, and to make the first direct observations revealing the specific neural patterns that drive social interactions in the hippocampal-entorhinal circuit in non-human primates. The outcome of these studies will for the first time reveal specific neural mechanisms in the brain that underlie social navigation, paving the elucidate relevant neural dysfunctions in cognitive disorders such as social anxiety autism spectrum.
