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As human beings we are inherently social creatures. From birth, we forge an array of social connections with one another, including intimate personal relationships within complex societal networks. Our survival and well-being critically depends on social interaction with others.

Social neuroscience is the study of the biological mechanisms that subserve these incredibly rich social interactions. Articulating and integrating biological, cognitive, and social levels of analysis is critical to our ability to develop more comprehensive explanations of human mind and behavior. While higher order meta-cognitive processes affect how we consciously operate and intentionally influence our functioning, automatic and unconscious mechanisms account for much more of our social interaction than we intuit. Furthermore, we cannot understand human social behavior without reference to evolutionary principles. Many aspects of our bodies, mind, and societies need to be understood as products of evolution, just like any other species.

In the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory (SCNL) at the University of Chicago, we investigate the core of dynamic inter-personal experience – how emotion and subjective feelings about others and self are represented in the brain and manifested in
social interaction. The research focuses on interpersonal processes including empathy, sympathy, perspective-taking, moral reasoning,
and emotion regulation. We also study the neurodevelopement of these processes in developing children and adolescents using the latest functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques.

We believe that these aspects of human social cognition are fundamental to interpersonal interaction and subsequently serve as the foundation for all of human culture. It is our conviction that a better understanding of intersubjectivity and related emotions is fostered by integrative analyses that span the biological and social levels of organization.

Such a multi-disciplinary approach, that bridges cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, and developmental science, has the potential for generating new hypotheses concerning social cognitive disorders and aids our understanding and treatment of abnormal human social behavior. Various psychopathologies are marked by interpersonal sensitivity deficits. Projects in the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab explore dysfunctions in the biopsychological mechanisms underpinning social information processing in children and adults with developmental and personality disorders including aggressive conduct disorder and antisocial behavior.

Dr. Jean Decety, Head of the Lab.

Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
The University of Chicago
5848 S. University Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60637