Social brain lab

Infobox University

| name = Social Brain Lab
city = Groningen
head = Prof. dr. Christian Keysers
country = The Netherlands
members = 14
website = [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/socialbrain.html]
type=University|

The Social Brain Lab is a research group within the Department of Neuroscience and the BCN NeuroImaging Center of the University of Groningen and University Medical Center Groningen that has made major contributions to our understanding of the neural basis of social cognition using techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Head

The Social Brain Lab is directed by Prof. Dr. Christian Keysers, one of the discoverers of auditory mirror neurons

Members

PhD Students: Piray Atsak, Jojanneke Bastiaansen, Idil Kokal, Harma Meffert, Marleen Schippers, Nikola Valchev
PostDocs: Leonardo Cerliani, Jo Etzel, Valeria Gazzola, Erwin Lemche, Luca Nanetti, Marc Thioux
Collaborators: Mbemba Jabbi (now at the National Institutes of Health, Christiaan van der Gaag

Current Research Focus

While we watch a movie, we share the experiences of the actors we observe: our heart for instance starts beating faster while we see an actor slip from the roof of a tall building. Why? Specific brain areas are involved when we perform certain actions or have certain emotions or sensations. Interestingly, some of these areas are also recruited when we simply observe someone else performing similar actions, having similar sensations or having similar emotions. These areas called 'shared circuits' transform what we see into what we would have done or felt in the same situation. With such brain areas, understanding other people is not an effort of explicit thought but becomes an intuitive sharing of their emotions, sensations and actions. Through the investigation of shared circuits, the social brain lab attempts to understand the neural basis of empathy and its dysfunctions in autism, schizophrenia and sociopathy

Publications

Thioux M, Gazzola V, Keysers C(2008), Action Understanding: How, What and Why, Current Biology 18:10 R431-R434. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/people/publications/2008_ThiouxGazzolaKeysers_CB.pdf]

van der Gaag C, Minderaa R, Keysers C(2007), Facial expressions: What the mirror neuron system can and cannot tell us, Social Neuroscience 2:179-222. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/2007_vdGaag_SNS.pdf]

Gazzola V, van der Worp H, Mulder T, Wicker B, Rizzolatti G, Keysers C(2007) Aplasics born without hands mirror the goal of hand actions with their feet. Current Biology 17:1235-1240. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/2007_Gazzola_aplasia.pdf]

Keysers C and Gazzola V(2007) Integrating simulation and theory of mind: from self to social cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/TICS_Sim_Tom.pdf]

van der Gaag C, Minderaa R, Keysers C(2007), The BOLD signal in the amygdala does not differentiate between dynamic facial expressions, Social Cognitive and Addective Neuroscience [http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/nsm002?ijkey=IoK1pAvEipKfRzC&keytype=ref] .

Gazzola V, Rizzolatti G, Wicker B, Keysers C (2007), The Anthropomorphic Brain: the mirror neuron system responds to human and robotic actions, NeuroImage [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/gazzola2007robot.pdf] .

Jabbi M., Swart M., Keysers C (2007), Empathy for positive and negative emotions in the gustatory cortex, Neuroimage 34:1744-53. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/empathypositivenegativegustatory.pdf]

Gazzola V, Aziz-Zadeh L, Keysers C (2006), Empathy and the somatotopic auditory mirror system in humans, Current Biology 16:1824-9. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/gazzola2006sound.pdf]

Keysers C, Gazzola V (2006), Towards a unifying neural theory of social cognition, Progress in Brain Research. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/2006_KeysersGazzola_PBR.pdf]

Gallese V, Keysers C, Rizzolatti G (2004), A unifying view of the basis of social cognition, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8: 396-403. [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/txt/people/publications/unifyingperspective.pdf]

Keysers C, Wicker B, Gazzola V, Anton JL, Fogassi L, Gallese V (2004), A touching sight: SII/PV activation during the observation and experience of touch, Neuron 42: 335-346.

Keysers C, Perrett DI (2004), Demystifying social cognition: a Hebbian perspective, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8: 501-507.

Keysers C, Kohler E, Umilta MA, Nanetti L, Fogassi L, Gallese V (2003), Audiovisual mirror neurons and action recognition, Experimental Brain Research 153: 628-636.

Wicker B, Keysers C, Plailly J, Royet JP, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G (2003), Both of us disgusted in My Insula: The common neural basis of seeing and feeling disgust, Neuron 40: 655-664.

Kohler E, Keysers C, Umilta MA, Fogassi L, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G (2002), Hearing sounds, understanding actions: Action representation in mirror neurons, Science 297: 846-848.

Gallese V, Keysers C (2001), Mirror neurons: A sensorimotor representation system, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24: 983.

Umilta MA, Kohler E, Gallese V, Fogassi L, Fadiga L, Keysers C, Rizzolatti G (2001), I know what you are doing: A neurophysiological study, Neuron 31: 155-165.

Awards and Grants

The Social Brain Lab has received the prestigious Marie Curie Excellence Grant [http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6/index_en.cfm?p=10_curie] of the European Commission and a VIDI Grant of the Dutch National Science Foundation [http://www.nwo.nl/subsidiewijzer.nsf/pages/NWOP_5VTGQW_Eng] . Christian Keysers has also received the highly competitive Marie Curie Excellence Award

External Links

Website of the social brain lab [http://www.bcn-nic.nl/socialbrain.html]