NCS-FO: How real-world interaction networks shape and are shaped by neural information processing

人类的思想和行为是嵌入在社会环境中的。然而，对社交网络和神经信息处理的研究几乎总是孤立地进行的。认知神经科学家通常在研究心理过程时不考虑个体如何受到其社交网络的影响，而社交网络的结构和动力学通常在研究时不考虑组成它们的大脑的工作。这项研究整合了认知神经科学和网络科学的理论和方法，以测试大脑是如何形成的，以及它是如何被社会环境塑造的。它将综合和扩展社会认知神经科学和网络科学的最新发展，以测试自然主义刺激的无约束处理中的个体差异如何形成，以及个体在现实社会网络中的位置如何形成。这个项目将描述一个有界社区的多关系社会网络的特征，该网络基于所有成员报告的相互关系和互动。一部分成员将完成一系列功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，包括自由观看视听刺激。该项目基于先前的工作，该工作表明fMRI响应时间序列的受试者间相似性预测了人们在社交网络中的距离，但将该工作扩展到四个新的方向。首先，通过利用多层网络分析的发展，这项研究将把神经反应的相似性与共享社交网络中个体之间的距离联系起来。这将使我们深入了解社交网络接近度和个体间神经反应相似性之间的关联在多大程度上是特定于友谊的，或者更普遍地扩展到同性恋。第二，整合多层网络分析和纵向功能磁共振成像将阐明神经反应相似性的程度，导致或导致在他们的社区的多关系的社会网络中的个人之间的接近。第三，配对多层网络方法和纵向功能磁共振成像将揭示一个人在社交网络中的互动类型的重要性如何与他/她对其他网络成员如何处理周围世界的影响有关。第四，该项目将社会网络位置与个体间神经变异性联系起来，不仅在功能磁共振成像响应时间序列方面，而且在对应于高级事件表征的多体素响应模式以及这些表征如何存储在记忆中方面。这项工作还将开发和推进分析多关系网络的方法;这将对研究网络现象的广泛学者有用，特别是在社会和大脑网络中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Human thought and behavior is embedded in social contexts. However, research on social networks and neural information processing are almost always conducted in isolation. Cognitive neuroscientists typically study mental processing without considering how individuals are influenced by their social networks, and the structure and dynamics of social networks are usually studied without considering the workings of the minds that comprise them. This research effort integrates theory and methods from cognitive neuroscience and network science to test how the brain shapes and is shaped by its social context. It will synthesize and extend recent developments in social cognitive neuroscience and network science to test how individual differences in unconstrained processing of naturalistic stimuli shape and are shaped by individuals' positions in a real-world social network. This project will characterize the multirelational social network of a bounded community based on all members' reported relationships and interactions with each other. A subset of the members will complete a series of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies involving free-viewing of audiovisual stimuli. This project is grounded in prior work that suggests that inter-subject similarities of fMRI response time series predict distances between people in their social network, but extends that work in four novel directions. First, by capitalizing on developments in multilayer network analysis, which will also be advanced further, the research will relate neural response similarities to distances between individuals within and across layers of their shared social network. This will yield insight into the extent to which associations between social network proximity and inter-individual similarities in neural responding are specific to friendship or extend more generally to homophily. Second, integrating multilayer network analysis and longitudinal fMRI will elucidate the extent to which neural response similarities cause or result from proximity between individuals in the multirelational social network of their community. Third, pairing multilayer network methods and longitudinal fMRI will shed light on how a person's importance across interaction types in a social network may relate to his/her influence on how other network members process the world around them. Fourth, the project will relate social network position to inter-individual neural variability not only in terms of fMRI response time series, but also in terms of multi-voxel response patterns corresponding to high-level event representations and how such representations are stored in memory. This work will also develop and advance approaches for analyzing multirelational networks; this will be useful to the broad range of scholars who study network phenomena, particularly in social and brain networks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.