An Emerging Field of Primate Social Neurophysiology: Current Developments

Abstract

Recently, there has been increased interest in investigating neurophysiological mechanisms underlying social interactions using a nonhuman primate model system. Several studies in this subfield, known as primate social neurophysiology, have begun to provide novel insights into how single neurons encode socially-relevant variables. This opinion piece intends to provide insight into the state of this field. In doing so, it discusses some common principles learned from primate social neurophysiology experiments.

Keywords: agency; allocentric representation; egocentric representation; nonhuman primates; social neurophysiology.

Figure 1.

Schematic illustrations of the main neuronal principles discovered from primate social neurophysiology research. A, Illustrations of three different neurons encoding task events in referenced to self (self-referenced), another individual (other-referenced), or both (common-referenced). B, An illustration of a neuron whose activity is gain-modulated by different social contexts within a given reference frame. C, An illustration of a neuron whose activity is specifically gated by particular social information, such as face and eyes. D, An illustration of mirroring in a neuron with comparable firing rate profiles for experienced and observed actions and/or outcomes. Refer to the main texts for the empirical sources for these encoding schemes during social interactions.