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Cell Mar 2023Social interactions require awareness and understanding of the behavior of others. Mirror neurons, cells representing an action by self and others, have been proposed to...
Social interactions require awareness and understanding of the behavior of others. Mirror neurons, cells representing an action by self and others, have been proposed to be integral to the cognitive substrates that enable such awareness and understanding. Mirror neurons of the primate neocortex represent skilled motor tasks, but it is unclear if they are critical for the actions they embody, enable social behaviors, or exist in non-cortical regions. We demonstrate that the activity of individual VMHvl neurons in the mouse hypothalamus represents aggression performed by self and others. We used a genetically encoded mirror-TRAP strategy to functionally interrogate these aggression-mirroring neurons. We find that their activity is essential for fighting and that forced activation of these cells triggers aggressive displays by mice, even toward their mirror image. Together, we have discovered a mirroring center in an evolutionarily ancient region that provides a subcortical cognitive substrate essential for a social behavior.
Topics: Animals; Mice; Aggression; Hypothalamus; Mirror Neurons; Social Behavior
PubMed: 36796363
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.01.022 -
Trends in Neurosciences Oct 2022The ability to behave in ways that benefit other individuals' well-being is among the most celebrated human characteristics crucial for social cohesiveness. Across... (Review)
Review
The ability to behave in ways that benefit other individuals' well-being is among the most celebrated human characteristics crucial for social cohesiveness. Across mammalian species, animals display various forms of prosocial behaviors - comforting, helping, and resource sharing - to support others' emotions, goals, and/or material needs. In this review, we provide a cross-species view of the behavioral manifestations, proximate and ultimate drives, and neural mechanisms of prosocial behaviors. We summarize key findings from recent studies in humans and rodents that have shed light on the neural mechanisms underlying different processes essential for prosocial interactions, from perception and empathic sharing of others' states to prosocial decisions and actions.
Topics: Altruism; Animals; Emotions; Empathy; Humans; Mammals; Social Behavior
PubMed: 35853793
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.06.008 -
The Neuroscientist : a Review Journal... Dec 2021Humans are an unusually prosocial species, who engage in social behaviors that include altruism-whereby an individual engages in costly or risky acts to improve the... (Review)
Review
Humans are an unusually prosocial species, who engage in social behaviors that include altruism-whereby an individual engages in costly or risky acts to improve the welfare of another person-care, and cooperation. Current perspectives on the neurobiology of human prosociality suggest that it is deeply rooted in the neuroendocrine architecture of the social brain and emphasize the modulatory role of the neuropeptide hormone oxytocin. In this review, we provide a conceptual overview of the neurobiology of prosocial behavior with a focus on oxytocin's modulatory role in human prosociality. Specifically, we aim to encourage a better understanding of the peptide's susceptibility to diverse factors that produce heterogeneity in outcomes and the resulting methodological implications for measuring the behavioral effects of oxytocin in humans. After providing an overview of the state-of-the-art research on oxytocin's exogenous use, we elaborate on the peptide's modulatory role in the context of care-based altruism, cooperation, and conflict and discuss its potential for therapeutic interventions in psychiatric disorders characterized by social dysfunction.
Topics: Altruism; Humans; Mental Disorders; Oxytocin; Social Behavior
PubMed: 32981445
DOI: 10.1177/1073858420960111 -
Current Obesity Reports Mar 2023This review aims to examine (i) the aetiology of obesity; (ii) how and why a perception of personal responsibility for obesity so dominantly frames this condition and... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
This review aims to examine (i) the aetiology of obesity; (ii) how and why a perception of personal responsibility for obesity so dominantly frames this condition and how this mindset leads to stigma; (iii) the consequences of obesity stigma for people living with obesity, and for the public support for interventions to prevent and manage this condition; and (iv) potential strategies to diminish our focus on personal responsibility for the development of obesity, to enable a reduction of obesity stigma, and to move towards effective interventions to prevent and manage obesity within the population.
RECENT FINDINGS
We summarise literature which shows that obesity stems from a complex interplay of genetic and environment factors most of which are outside an individual's control. Despite this, evidence of obesity stigmatisation remains abundant throughout areas of media, entertainment, social media and the internet, advertising, news outlets, and the political and public health landscape. This has damaging consequences including psychological, physical, and socioeconomic harm. Obesity stigma does not prevent obesity. A combined, concerted, and sustained effort from multiple stakeholders and key decision-makers within society is required to dispel myths around personal responsibility for body weight, and to foster more empathy for people living in larger bodies. This also sets the scene for more effective policies and interventions, targeting the social and environmental drivers of health, to ultimately improve population health.
Topics: Humans; Social Stigma; Obesity; Body Weight; Social Behavior; Stereotyping
PubMed: 36781624
DOI: 10.1007/s13679-023-00495-3 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Jul 2022At the birth of supergenes, the genomic landscape is dramatically re-organized leading to pronounced differences in phenotypes and increased intrasexual diversity. Two... (Review)
Review
At the birth of supergenes, the genomic landscape is dramatically re-organized leading to pronounced differences in phenotypes and increased intrasexual diversity. Two of the best-studied supergenes in vertebrates are arguably the inversion polymorphisms on chromosomes 2 and 11 in the white-throated sparrow () and the ruff (), respectively. In both species, regions of suppressed recombination determine plumage coloration and social behavioural phenotypes. Despite the apparent lack of gene overlap between these two supergenes, in both cases the alternative phenotypes seem to be driven largely by alterations in steroid hormone pathways. Here, we explore the interplay between genomic architecture and steroid-related genes. Due to the highly pleiotropic effects of steroid-related genes and their universal involvement in social behaviour and transcriptomic regulation, processes favouring their linkage are likely to have substantial effects on the evolution of behavioural phenotypes, individual fitness, and life-history strategies. We propose that inversion-related differentiation and regulatory changes in steroid-related genes lie at the core of phenotypic differentiation in both of these interesting species. This article is part of the theme issue 'Genetic basis of adaptation and speciation: from loci to causative mutations'.
Topics: Animals; Chromosome Inversion; Genome; Social Behavior; Sparrows; Steroids
PubMed: 35634926
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0507 -
Frontiers in Neural Circuits 2022
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Social Behavior
PubMed: 35615624
DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2022.897273 -
Nature Reviews. Neuroscience Oct 2020Brain-wide circuits that coordinate affective and social behaviours intersect in the amygdala. Consequently, amygdala lesions cause a heterogeneous array of social and... (Review)
Review
Brain-wide circuits that coordinate affective and social behaviours intersect in the amygdala. Consequently, amygdala lesions cause a heterogeneous array of social and non-social deficits. Social behaviours are not localized to subdivisions of the amygdala even though the inputs and outputs that carry social signals are anatomically restricted to distinct subnuclear regions. This observation may be explained by the multidimensional response properties of the component neurons. Indeed, the multitudes of circuits that converge in the amygdala enlist the same subset of neurons into different ensembles that combine social and non-social elements into high-dimensional representations. These representations may enable flexible, context-dependent social decisions. As such, multidimensional processing may operate in parallel with subcircuits of genetically identical neurons that serve specialized and functionally dissociable functions. When combined, the activity of specialized circuits may grant specificity to social behaviours, whereas multidimensional processing facilitates the flexibility and nuance needed for complex social behaviour.
Topics: Amygdala; Animals; Cognition; Humans; Models, Neurological; Neural Pathways; Neurons; Social Behavior
PubMed: 32839565
DOI: 10.1038/s41583-020-0350-y -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Jul 2020Oxytocin has garnered considerable interest for its role in social behavior, as well as for the potential of intranasal administration to treat social difficulties.... (Review)
Review
Oxytocin has garnered considerable interest for its role in social behavior, as well as for the potential of intranasal administration to treat social difficulties. However, current theoretical models for the role of oxytocin in social behavior pay little consideration to its evolutionary and developmental history. This article aims to broaden our understanding of the role of oxytocin in social behavior by adopting an ethological approach through the lens of Nikolaas Tinbergen's 'four questions' - how does oxytocin work; how does the role of oxytocin change during development; how does oxytocin enhance survival; and how did the oxytocin system evolve? We argue that oxytocin is most accurately described as an allostatic hormone that modulates both social and non-social behavior by maintaining stability through changing environments.
Topics: Administration, Intranasal; Cognition; Ethology; Humans; Oxytocin; Social Behavior
PubMed: 32360118
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.03.008 -
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association... Jul 2023
Topics: Humans; Social Behavior; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 37524402
DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.221836 -
Frontiers in Endocrinology 2022Classically the neurobiology of aggression has been studied exclusively in males. Thus, females have been considered mildly aggressive except during lactation.... (Review)
Review
Classically the neurobiology of aggression has been studied exclusively in males. Thus, females have been considered mildly aggressive except during lactation. Interestingly, recent studies in rodents and humans have revealed that non-lactating females can show exacerbated and pathological aggression similarly to males. This review provides an overview of recent findings on the neuroendocrine mechanisms regulating aggressive behavior in females. In particular, the focus will be on novel rodent models of exaggerated aggression established in non-lactating females. Among the neuromodulatory systems influencing female aggression, special attention has been given to sex-steroids and sex-steroid-sensitive neuronal populations (i.e., the core nuclei of the neural pathway of aggression) as well as to the neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin which are major players in the regulation of social behaviors.
Topics: Aggression; Animals; Arginine Vasopressin; Female; Humans; Oxytocin; Receptors, Oxytocin; Rodentia; Social Behavior
PubMed: 36034455
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2022.957114