neurAl corRelate for the peRception of Others reWard

Perceiving what others feel is one of the most fascinating traits of humans, as social animals.

It is believed that sharing emotions is critical to facilitate social coordination, empathic experiences, and prosocial behaviors.

Over the past decade, thanks to a groundbreaking emergence of neuroscience tools it has been possible to explore brain activity systematically across humans, primates, and rodents in emotional transfer tasks. Up to date, studies have focused on the transfer of negative emotions such as pain, fear, and distress.

Despite the importance of affiliative interactions and perception of positive emotional states from others in shaping how animals behave socially, it is surprising that the transfer of positive emotional states has been virtually unexplored.

To fill this gap, I propose ARROW, where I will dissect the neural circuit mechanisms of the perception of others positive emotions using a recently developed vicarious reward task for rodents.

I will ask how the perception of the rewarding states from conspecifics is implemented at the single neuron level in the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), and modulated by long-range neuronal circuits (projections to and from the Anterior Cingulate Cortex).

To address this aim, I will build on my previous in vivo electrophysiology skills and leverage on the state-of-the-art expertise of Dr. Mrquez in studying social behaviors using quantitative approaches and neural circuit manipulations, and Dr. Charlet in dissecting neuron circuit functionality.

This bold and innovative project is not simply incremental but will provide groundbreaking research on a fundamental brain function that is currently understudied.

Finally, I will use this funding to catalyze my career as a future influential principal investigator, building the foundation for my future independent research aiming at how such neural mechanisms are impaired in disease.