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New research in mice has identified neurons in the brain that influence competitive interactions between individuals and play crucial roles in shaping group social behavior. The results, published in Nature by a team led by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), will be useful not only for scientists interested in human interactions, but also for those who study neurocognitive disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and Examine schizophrenia characterized by changes in social behavior.
“Social interactions in humans and animals occur most often in large groups, and these group interactions figure prominently in sociology, ecology, psychology, economics, and political science,” says lead author S. William Li, MD/PhD student at MGH. “The processes in the brain that drive the complex dynamic behavior of social groups are still poorly understood, in part because most neuroscientific research to date has focused on the behavior of pairs of individuals interacting alone. Here we were able to study group behavior to develop a paradigm in which large cohorts of mice were wirelessly tracked across thousands of unique competitive group interactions.
Li and his colleagues found that the social rank of the animals in the group was closely linked to the results of the competition, and by examining real-time recordings of neurons in the brains of mice, the team discovered that neurons in the anterior cingulate region The brain stores this social ranking information to make upcoming decisions.
“Taken together, these neurons contained remarkably detailed accounts of the group’s behavior and its dynamics as the animals competed together for food, in addition to information about the resources available and the outcome of their past interactions,” explains senior author Ziv M. Williams, MD, a neurosurgeon Oncologist at MGH. “Together, these neurons could even predict the animal’s own future success long before competition began, meaning they likely influenced the animals’ competitive behavior depending on who they interacted with.”
On the other hand, manipulating the activity of these neurons could artificially increase or decrease an animal’s competitive efforts and thus control its ability to successfully compete against others. “In other words, we could selectively up- and down-regulate the animal’s competitive instincts without affecting other aspects of its behavior, such as simple speed or motivation,” says Williams.
The results suggest that competitive success is not simply a product of an animal’s physical fitness or strength, but is strongly influenced by signals in the brain that affect competitive instincts. “These unique neurons are able to integrate information about the individual’s environment, social group attitudes, and reward resources to calculate how best to behave under certain conditions,” says Li.
In addition to providing insights into group behavior and competition in different sociological or economic situations and other settings, identifying the neurons that control these traits can help scientists design experiments to better understand scenarios in which the brain functions differently is wired. “Many conditions are manifested in aberrant social behavior that encompasses many dimensions, including the ability to understand social norms and engage in actions that might conform to the dynamic structure of social groups,” says Williams. “Developing an understanding of group behavior and competition is relevant to these neurocognitive disorders, but how this happens in the brain remains largely unexplored.”
Other co-authors are Omer Zeliger, Leah Strahs, Raymundo Báez-Mendoza, Lance M. Johnson, and Adian McDonald Wojciechowski.
Funding for this research was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the Autism Science Foundation, an MGH-ECOR Fund for Medical Discovery Fellowship, and a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
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Materials provided by Massachusetts General Hospital. Note: Content can be edited for style and length.
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