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A neuronal social trait space for first impressions in the human amygdala and hippocampus

View ORCID ProfileRunnan Cao, Chujun Lin, Xin Li, Alexander Todorov, Nicholas J Brandmeir, View ORCID ProfileShuo Wang
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.30.428973
Runnan Cao
1Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
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  • For correspondence: runnan.cao@mail.wvu.edu wangshuo45@gmail.com
Chujun Lin
2Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
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Xin Li
3Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
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Alexander Todorov
4Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637
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Nicholas J Brandmeir
5Department of Neurosurgery, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
6Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
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Shuo Wang
1Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
6Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
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  • For correspondence: runnan.cao@mail.wvu.edu wangshuo45@gmail.com
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Abstract

People instantaneously evaluate faces with significant agreement on evaluations of social traits. However, the neural basis for such rapid spontaneous face evaluation remains largely unknown. Here, we recorded from 490 neurons in the amygdala and hippocampus in 5 neurosurgical patients and show that amygdala and hippocampal neurons encode a social trait space. We further investigated the temporal evolution and modulation on the social trait representation, and we employed encoding and decoding models to reveal the critical social traits for the trait space. We also recorded from another 259 neurons and replicated our findings using different social traits. Lastly, the neuronal social trait space may have a behavioral consequence likely involved in the abnormal processing of social information in autism. Together, our results suggest that there exists a neuronal population code for a comprehensive social trait space in the human amygdala and hippocampus that underlie spontaneous first impressions.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 30, 2021.
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A neuronal social trait space for first impressions in the human amygdala and hippocampus
Runnan Cao, Chujun Lin, Xin Li, Alexander Todorov, Nicholas J Brandmeir, Shuo Wang
bioRxiv 2021.01.30.428973; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.30.428973
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A neuronal social trait space for first impressions in the human amygdala and hippocampus
Runnan Cao, Chujun Lin, Xin Li, Alexander Todorov, Nicholas J Brandmeir, Shuo Wang
bioRxiv 2021.01.30.428973; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.30.428973

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