Studying the role of the human habenular system in social hierarchy

虽然我们的社会地位和等级往往决定了我们是谁，是我们日常生活中不可或缺的一部分（在家里，在学校，在工作中，等等），我们对大脑如何处理社会等级信息仍然知之甚少。社会等级制度通常是通过社会冲突建立起来的，是一种普遍现象，在包括人类在内的社会物种的最佳运作中发挥着核心作用。重要的是，为了在以社会等级为特征的社会环境中导航，我们的大脑必须：识别社会冲突的结果-谁赢了/输了，从而获得了更高/更低的地位;学习和更新有关社会等级的信息;并选择在社会等级背景下产生的最佳行动。该研究计划旨在研究这些认知能力及其相互作用，以更好地了解支持社会等级的神经过程及其对行为和决策的影响。我们认为，缰，一个小的大脑结构的上丘脑，作为一个枢纽之间的认知和情感的大脑系统，在这三种能力中发挥着关键作用。** 为了研究社会等级的神经基础及其对人类行为的影响，我们将使用一种创新的方法，将专门设计用于引发社会等级处理的行为任务与行为建模相结合-使用数学模型来描述个人如何做出决策。为了测量在这些任务中的大脑活动，我们将使用高分辨率功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究小的大脑结构，如缰。我们将研究一般人群，重要的是，在高度等级化的环境中工作的军事人员，因此非常适合研究与社会等级相关的短期和长期行为和神经变化。该研究计划将通过调查结果编码，学习和决策以及这些过程如何相互作用，为科学界提供有关社会等级处理的新的和有价值的知识。重要的是，有几种类型的组织（军事、应急单位、工业）依赖于由个人组成的小团体，这些团体必须孤立地工作，社会等级制度必然会在其中形成。这些小团队的有效运作一定程度上取决于每个成员如何处理社会等级。通过描述支持社会等级的大脑机制以及它们如何变化，这项研究计划将为开发旨在促进这些小团队最佳功能的培训提供科学依据。

Although our social status and ranks often define who we are and are an integral part of our daily life (at home, at school, at work, etc.), we still know fairly little about how our brain processes information about social hierarchy. Social hierarchy, which is often established through social conflicts, is a universal phenomenon and plays a central role in optimal functioning of social species including humans. Importantly, to navigate social environments characterized by social hierarchy, our brain has to: identify the outcomes of social conflicts—who has won/lost and thus as gained higher/lower status; learn and update information about social hierarchy; and choose the best actions to produce in a social hierarchy context. This research program aims at studying each of these cognitive abilities and their interactions to gain a better understanding of the neural processes supporting social hierarchy and its influence on behavior and decision-making. We propose that the habenula, a small brain structure of the epithalamus that acts as a hub between cognitive and affective brain systems, plays a key role in these three abilities. ******To study the neural underpinnings of social hierarchy and its influence on human behavior, we will use an innovative approach combining behavioral tasks specifically designed to elicit social hierarchy processing and behavioral modeling—the use of mathematical models to describe how individuals make decisions. To measure brain activity during these tasks, we will use high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tailored for the study of small brain structures such as the habenula. We will study the general population and, importantly, military personnel who work in highly hierarchical contexts and are thus ideally suited to investigate short and long term behavioral and neural changes related to social hierarchy.******This research program will provide the scientific community with new and valuable knowledge about the processing of social hierarchy by investigating outcome coding, learning and decision-making and how these processes interact. Importantly, several types of organizations (military, emergency units, industry) rely on small groups of individuals that have to work in isolation and in which social hierarchies are bound to be formed. Adequate functioning of these small teams surely depends in part on how each member processes social hierarchy. By describing the brain mechanisms that support social hierarchy and how they can change, this research program will provide scientific bases for the development of training aimed at favoring optimal functioning in these small teams.