SOCO · Social connections

Our brain both shapes and is shaped by social interactions, creating a dynamic link between neural processes and our social environment. Although previous research has identified brain regions involved in social functional processes such as perspective-taking and empathy, and has shown environmentally guided brain plasticity, we still lack a full understanding of the neurobiological basis of social thinking that combines internal brain processes and external social factors. Specifically, we do not fully understand how brain structure and function enable our social abilities while also being influenced by our social surroundings. This knowledge gap limits our understanding of human social behavior and how the brain adapts to changing social demands. This ERC Starting Grant ‘Social Connections’ (SOCO) aims to fill this gap by investigating the connection between social cognition and the social environment. My project uniquely combines precision neuroimaging, describing the microarchitectural basis of social cognition at the highest resolution, with population neuroimaging, tracking lifespan brain trajectories linked to social processes. First, I will map key social functional processes, perspective-taking and empathy, using a naturalistic social task. For this, I will use in vivo ultra-high resolution structural and functional brain scans (7 Tesla MRI) and independent post-mortem histological data to understand how the brain enables social cognition. Second, using publicly available large-scale datasets, I will investigate how genes, based on genome-wide association studies, and social environment, such as caregiving, socioeconomic status, and loneliness, interact to form the structure and function of brain areas involved in social behavior throughout life. By illuminating how internal functional processes and external social factors come together, I will advance our understanding of the neurobiological basis of social cognition with a novel and integrative approach.