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We humans are a highly social species, capable of building and sustaining long-lasting social bonds. But how are those bonds generated and reinforced in the first place? Intuitively, we know that we care about what happens to others around us, even if their fortunes do not directly impact us. As such, we attach value, be it positive or negative, to things happening to our social partners. Only recently research into the value of these social outcomes has begun. In this project, a quantitative, interdisciplinary approach to social valuation will be used in rodents to uncover the neural basis of social valuation. In brief, the value of 'social reward' will be explored in four behavioral experiments focusing on choice behavior in social interactions. Subsequently, these experimental paradigms will be followed up with neurobiological interventions and neurophysiological recordings. This combined approach allows testing for causality of brain function in choice behavior. Such animal models could potentially be used to investigate the basis of maladaptive social choice found in psychiatric conditions such as autism and schizophrenia and major depression.

• Dr. Marijn van Wingerden

  Universität Düsseldorf
  Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät
  Institut für Experimentelle Psychologie
  Arbeitsgruppe Vergleichende Psychologie
  Düsseldorf
  

• Vicarious reward unblocks associative learning about novel cues in male rats

• Lesions of the rat basolateral amygdala reduce the behavioral response to ultrasonic vocalizations