Computational neuroscience of social behavior and psychopathology. (360G-Wellcome-091188_Z_10_Z)

My proposed research program seeks to uncover the computational and neural mechanisms supporting social cognition in humans for the purpose of understanding and treating psychopathologies. The work in this proposal will use neuroimaging, computational models, and later computational approaches to genetic substrates to pursue these goals. We will make liberal use of economically framed social interaction games as probes of both normal and pathological cognition. Our guiding hypothesis in this p roposal is that interpersonal games can be used to uncover functional imaging endophenotypes for important psychopathologies that involve social exchange or social modeling. Such endophenotypes can provide new objective measures to identify underlying genetic correlates, differentiate diagnostic categories or criteria, or provide brain-based assays of treatment strategies.