Neurobiology of social behavior

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Being part of a social group creates needs that require specialized behavioral and neurobiological responses. The novel and recently defined field of social neuroscience aims at understanding the neurobiological bases of social behavior. My and my students' research program will focus on the neurobiology of cognitive aspects of social behavior in mammals. Among many facets of social behavior, we will place particular emphasis on those that require a high level of cognitive involvement. In particular, using rodents, we will focus on: (1) Social Recognition, the ability to recognize individuals. This specific form of learning has implications for a number of social behaviors, from mating and social preferences to the recognition and avoidance of parasitized individuals. (2) Social Learning, whereby an individual acquires biologically relevant and adaptive information from other individuals, allows one to avoid the costs often associated with individual learning. Despite its high adaptiveness and commonality in numerous species, the understanding of the neurobiological bases of social learning is, at present, extremely limited. (3) Social Reactivity, the behavioral responses of animals when in the presence of members of their own species. We will continue on going investigations on the role of various neurochemical systems in social behavior, through the integrative use of behavioral, pharmacological, neurobiological, molecular and genetic research methodologies. Identifying the neural and hormonal processes subserving normal social behavior could aid in the development of novel treatments of abnormal social behavior, thus helping several vexing human disorders. Among many, these include autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and schizotypical disorders, social phobias and anxiety, as well as hyperaggression and violence. Furthermore, given that individual and social learning can be neurobiologically different, today's minimal knowledge of the mechanisms of social learning is a serious drawback for the evaluation of various agents (e.g. of new and old (!) drug therapies) on learning and memory. Our research will contribute to filling this gap in knowledge and help to advance research in social neuroscience in Canada.