📋 Tender Overview
The Interactive Side Of Emotion: A Neuroethological Approach In Freely-Moving Monkeys
The Mechanisms Of Emotions In Monkeysemerging Evidence Indicates That Emotion Recognition Is Not Unique To Humans; Other Species Such As Primates Also Have This Ability And Use It To Regulate Their Interactions With Others. The Eu-Funded Emactive Project Will Investigate Which Neurons In The Primate Brain Are Responsible For Emotion Recognition And The Generation Of Emotional Behaviours During Social Exchanges. Researchers Will Employ A Multidisciplinary Approach To Study The Role Of Different Brain Regions In The Control Of Specific Emotional Displays During Social Interactions. Moreover, They Will Study How These Brain Regions Interact To Coordinate Behaviour. Project Findings Will Pave The Way To Understanding The Neural Mechanisms Underlying Human Emotional Behaviours And Their Alteration In Various Neuropsychiatric Diseases.
Funded Under
Excellent Science - European Research Council (Erc)
Total Cost
€ 1 999 231,00
Eu Contribution
€ 1 999 231,00
Coordinated By
Universita Degli Studi Di Parma
Italy
Start Date
1 April 2022
End Date
31 March 2027
Objective
A general principle of brain functioning is the exploitation of neural substrates for self-related processes, such as action planning, decision-making and space coding, to map those of others. Indirect evidence indicates that similar agent-based coding may characterize emotion as well. How does the primate brain represent emotional displays (EDs) of self and others from the single-neuron to the network level? EMACTIVE will leverage state-of-the-art wireless recording technologies developed during my previous ERC StG to crack the code of agent-based representation of EDs.
I will first record single-neuron activity from the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (WP1) and amygdala (WP2) alongside physiological data of freely moving pairs of macaques, aiming to identify self- (ST) and other-type (OT) neurons encoding EDs: I hypothesize that an animal’s ST neurons drive its Eds, which in turn trigger OT neurons of the partner, facilitating behavioural coordination. By means of neural decoding approaches, chemogenetic inactivation and wireless intracortical microstimulation, I will assess the causal role of each region in the control of specific EDs during interactive situations. Next (WP3), neuronal tracers will be injected in the amygdalar and ACC territories hosting ST and OT neurons, providing the connectional fingerprint of agent-based representation of EDs. Finally, in WP4 we will record neuronal activity simultaneously from multiple regions anatomically connected with the ACC and amygdala (capitalizing on findings from WP3) in two additional pairs of freely interacting monkeys (multiareal hyperscanning), thereby revealing the neural and contextual factors affecting interbrain synchrony and its role in behavioural coordination.
EMACTIVE will reveal the single-cell and network mechanisms underlyi
