Meeting: Inaugural Neuroimaging Workshop on the Dynamic Social Brain (October 22-23, 2015)

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

A key challenge in the study of the human brain resides not only in determining how psychological states and processes map onto patterns of brain activity but how this activity is modulated by shared representations, social compositions, and social behaviors. When the term "social neuroscience" was introduced in 1992 and characterized as the study of the transduction pathways between the various biological and social levels of organization, the dominant perspective for examining the brain was the solitary computer. Since 1992, it has also become essential to consider theoretically and empirically how thinking brains think about other thinking brains, a core concept in social neuroscience. The past 25 years have seen not only the acceptance of the field of social neuroscience, but also its tremendous growth as an integrative and interdisciplinary field towards medical neuroscience, as several neuroimaging procedures were burgeoning, and human lesion studies, comparative research, and animal models began to focus more on the biological basis of social structures and their effects on mental and physical health. The growth of social neuroscience has been fueled by research the expansion of these methods, and by the development of analytic tools for studying the dynamic neural aspects of the social brain in health and disease. With such a fast growth, there is a crucial need for neuroscientists to stay up-to-date on the available neuroimaging methods and cutting-edge analytic tools to study the social brain. Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine will lead the first neuroimaging workshop on the dynamic social brain to address this need by focusing on the most important neuroimaging technique used by social neuroscientists, namely, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This workshop will offer attendees both a theoretical and a practical background to provide attendees with a unique opportunity to learn more about the cutting-edge neuroimaging methods and analytic tools currently available for rigorous investigation of the social brain. The internationally renown speakers in this year's neuroimaging workshop meeting will illustrate the value of comparative research and will stimulate discussions among attendees regarding the importance of opening new dialogues between researchers and clinicians. Lectures will be intertwined with 45-minute long sessions dedicated to promote more discussion on building more meaningful bridges between researchers pertaining to social neuroscience and its implications for society at large. This workshop aims to raise awareness on the intimate relationship between theory and methods; to promote the discussion on a set of considerations to guide the interpretation or understanding of data from neuroimaging studies; to highlight the importance of using converging methods to dissect the social brain; to identify common themes in the neural mechanisms of social behavior; and to promote discussion on building more meaningful bridges between researchers and clinicians and between animal and human researchers pertaining to social neuroscience and its implications for society at large. This workshop is expected to have academic and societal impact by fostering interdisciplinary and international interactions and potential collaboration among a tremendous diversity of talented young researchers at various career stages, from different disciplines, and from historically under-represented groups. By bringing students, fellows, and faculty together from various departments to learn about and work on neuroimaging to address questions about brain function from each of their perspectives, they will learn about the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the enterprise and the importance of interdisciplinary research teams to address their individual questions. The final outcome of this workshop will be the development of large-scale, high quality, and cross-cutting collaborative project proposals possibly international, from interdisciplinary scientific teams in neuroimaging composed of researchers and clinicians studying animal and human social behaviors.