There is no shortage of social situations in a place like New York City. Even when inundated by a fast-paced blur of people, we can still pick out a familiar face from a crowd or form immediate impressions about strangers. What are the underlying mechanisms that allow the brain to realize you’ve run into your barista on the subway? How does information from previous social interactions shape the brain’s analysis of new ones? In this event, three experts combine their perspectives across neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology to explore how we relate to those around us.
Steven A. Siegelbaum, PhD, Gerald D. Fischbach, MD, Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Pharmacology, Chair, Department of Neuroscience, and Principal Investigator at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, will begin our event by discussing the brain mechanisms for social memory – our store of information about our encounters with other individuals. This ability is a key part of social behavior, and it involves the hippocampus, a region of the brain famous for its role in memory. How does the hippocampus encode and process this type of social information? How do changes in hippocampal function contribute to social dysfunction associated with neuropsychiatric disorders? By eavesdropping on specific neurons in the hippocampus of healthy mice and mouse models of psychiatric disorders, Dr. Siegelbaum will discuss how his lab is approaching such questions.
Jon B. Freeman, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, will then share his research on the snap judgments that people make about each other during everyday encounters. What characteristics about a person can we extract from seeing their face for less than a second? Perhaps you might learn about which social groups that person is a part of, the emotions they are feeling in that moment, or even their personality traits. How does the brain rapidly sift through this information while recalling knowledge from past experiences? And how can we draw quick, informed conclusions about people without falling into stereotypes?
Following the two talks, Dr. Jennifer Merritt, Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the lab of Dr. Andrés Bendesky at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute, will moderate a discussion and Q&A with the speakers. Audience questions are welcomed, either submitted during registration or live during the event.
