RESEARCH AREAS
Social interactions between individuals and among groups are a hallmark of human society and are critical to the physical and mental health of a wide variety of species including humans. The central goal of our lab is to study the fundamental principles of how social behavior is regulated in the brain. We study how neural circuits and the underlying computation regulate social behavioral decisions within a single brain as well as how emergent inter-brain neural properties arise from social interactions between individuals. We take a multi-disciplinary approach and uses a variety of experimental and computational technologies across molecular, circuit, and behavioral levels.
1. Neural circuits underlying social behavioral decisions (within a single brain)
Social interactions involve active detection of various social cues and selection of appropriate social decisions. We are interested in studying how social sensory information is processed and integrated in the brain and how different social behavioral decisions are selected and modulated by neural circuits.
Review:
Chen and Hong. Neural circuit mechanisms of social behavior. Neuron 2018.
Neural mechanism of prosocial comforting behavior
Wu et al. Neural control of affiliative touch in prosocial interaction Nature 2021
Neural processing of social reward
Hu et al. An amygdala-to-hypothalamus circuit for social reward
Nature Neuroscience 2021
Neural representation of conspecific sex identity
Kingsbury et al. Cortical representations of conspecific sex shape social behavior Neuron 2020
Sexually dimorphic neural control of parenting behavior
Chen et al. Sexually dimorphic control of parenting behavior by the medial amygdala. Cell 2019
Neural mechanisms underlying aggressive behavior
Hong et al. Antagonistic control of social versus repetitive self-grooming behaviors by separable amygdala neuronal subsets. Cell 2014
2. Emergent inter-brain properties in a multi-brain neural system (across brains)
Social interaction can be seen as a dynamic feedback loop that couples two or more high-dimension neural networks (i.e. brains). This feedback loop dynamically shapes behavior, shared cognitive states, and social relationships across individual agents. A fuller understanding of the social brain requires a description of how the neural dynamics are coupled across brains and how they coevolve over time. We study social decisions and emergent inter-brain neural properties in a multi-brain framework that considers social interaction as an integrated network of neural systems.
Review:
Kingsbury and Hong W. A multi-brain framework for social interaction. Trends in Neurosciences 2020
Inter-brain neural synchrony across brains of socially interacting animals
Kingsbury et al. Correlated neural activity and encoding of behavior across brains of socially interacting animals. Cell 2019
Review:
Kingsbury and Hong W. A multi-brain framework for social interaction. Trends in Neurosciences 2020
Inter-brain neural synchrony across brains of socially interacting animals
Kingsbury et al. Correlated neural activity and encoding of behavior across brains of socially interacting animals. Cell 2019
3. Molecular and behavioral tools for studying social behavior
Act-seq: a single-cell sequencing approach to identify active neuronal populations
Wu et al. Detecting Activated Cell Populations Using Single-Cell RNA-Seq. Neuron 2017
Using depth sensing and machine learning to track and analyze social behavior
Hong et al. Automated Measurement of Mouse Social Behaviors Using Depth Sensing, Video Tracking, and Machine Learning. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2015
Wu et al. Detecting Activated Cell Populations Using Single-Cell RNA-Seq. Neuron 2017
Using depth sensing and machine learning to track and analyze social behavior
Hong et al. Automated Measurement of Mouse Social Behaviors Using Depth Sensing, Video Tracking, and Machine Learning. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2015