CiNet Monthly Seminar

Sep. 17 (Thu.), 2026
15:00-16:00 (JST)
at the Conference Room in the CiNet bldg.

Talk title: Developing a systems neuroscience of self and others using macaques

Masaki Isoda
Professor
National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Host : Ryo Ishibashi

Abstract:
Navigating complex social environments requires organisms to distinguish between one’s own actions and outcomes and those of others. Over the past years, our laboratory has sought to clarify the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of information about others’ actions and rewards using macaque monkeys as a model animal. In this talk, I will present our recent findings on how the macaque brain monitors, represents, and utilizes observed information about actions and rewards. By recording single-neuron and local field potential activity during social task paradigms, we identified specialized neural populations within cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical networks that encode others’ choices and rewards, respectively. Furthermore, to move beyond correlational observations, we employed pathway-selective manipulations using viral vector technology. These causal interventions revealed that specific neural circuits – namely, one from the ventral premotor cortex to the medial prefrontal cortex, and another from the medial prefrontal cortex to the lateral hypothalamus – are required for adjusting one’s own decisions and valuations, respectively, based on the monitoring of others’ experiences. By combining high-resolution electrophysiology with precise pathway-specific viral vector interventions, our research provides a systems-level framework for how social information is processed in the brain for generating adaptively relevant behavior.