International Travel Support: ESCON

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Social cognition research studies how people think about others and as well as how they think they form impressions of each other, a critical topic in today's global village. The European Social Cognition Network's annual conference provides a unique forum for international scientific exchange, focusing on recent developments. The PI conducts cutting-edge research linking social cognition to neuroscience. Funds are requested for the PI and two senior graduate students to attend the annual conference in Gothenberg, Sweden, August 25-29th, 2010. The PI is an invited plenary speaker, and the graduate students will make presentations of related work. The PI was invited to present his most recent research on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of person perception with a particular emphasis on the social dimensions of face perception. Research on face perception intersects a number of different research areas including social psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology, and addresses fundamental questions in vision, psychology, and neuroscience. The approach in the PI's lab--social cognition and social neuroscience--is multidisciplinary, using a variety of methods from behavioral and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiments to computer and statistical modeling. The conference mixes junior (70%) and senior (30%) researchers, from 15-20 countries, mostly but not all European; all present research and receive concentrated feedback. Attendees interact formally and informally, fostering international research collaboration and general networks for future contact, serving to integrate the younger researchers into the international scientific community. This travel award is a small contribution to the broader impacts of the PI's involvement in this work.