A Map for Social Navigation in the Human Brain

Adult Male 0301 basic medicine Brain Mapping Neuroscience(all) Functional Neuroimaging Brain Hippocampus Magnetic Resonance Imaging Social Skills Young Adult 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Humans Female Social Behavior
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.06.011 Publication Date: 2015-07-01T15:47:21Z
ABSTRACT
Deciphering the neural mechanisms of social behavior has propelled the growth of social neuroscience. The exact computations of the social brain, however, remain elusive. Here we investigated how the human brain tracks ongoing changes in social relationships using functional neuroimaging. Participants were lead characters in a role-playing game in which they were to find a new home and a job through interactions with virtual cartoon characters. We found that a two-dimensional geometric model of social relationships, a "social space" framed by power and affiliation, predicted hippocampal activity. Moreover, participants who reported better social skills showed stronger covariance between hippocampal activity and "movement" through "social space." The results suggest that the hippocampus is crucial for social cognition, and imply that beyond framing physical locations, the hippocampus computes a more general, inclusive, abstract, and multidimensional cognitive map consistent with its role in episodic memory.
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