Computational Neuroethological Approaches to Problems in Social Neuroscience
The burgeoning field of Social Neuroscience investigates the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the interactions that occur between individuals. Interest in this area has grown as social deficits have become recognized as a key component of several mental health disorders. A cornerstone of this field is the idea that understanding the neural activity, circuits and neurochemicals involved in processing social information and social rewards requires using stimuli and contexts that are more ethologically relevant than those traditionally applied in laboratory studies. However, natural stimuli and contexts are complex, so that designing controlled experiments and interpreting the data can be difficult. This is where computational neuroethology can make tangible contributions. This workshop highlights examples across species where using computational and/or quantitative methods in addressing problems in social neuroscience has helped advance our understanding of the neurobiological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying social interactions.
The Workshop is part of the annual Computational Neuroscience meeting (CNS 2012), and is organized by Robert Liu (Emory) and Elizabeth Buffalo (Emory), and supported by contributions from the Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, the Emory Department of Biology and the Emory Computational and Life Sciences Initiative.
Confirmed speakers include:
Bruce Carlson (Washington University)
Decoding of temporal information in social communication signals
Eric Fortune (Johns Hopkins)
Wired to cooperate: Neural mechanisms of duet singing in wrens
Asif Ghazanfar (Princeton)
Vocal communication emerges and evolves through coupled oscillations
Katalin Gothard (University of Arizona)
Decoding social signals from neural activity in the monkey amygdala
Hans Hofmann (University of Texas at Austin)
Modules, Circuits, and Networks: Making sense of data across levels of organization and over evolutionary time
Warren Jones (Marcus Autism Center)
Entrainment of adaptive action in typical two-year-olds and disruptions thereof in autism
Robert Liu (Emory)
Neural mechanisms of communication from the system to sub-cellular scale
Michael Platt (Duke)
Neuronal basis of giving and receiving
Larry Young (Emory)
Introduction to social neuroscience