[CogSci] Special Issue on Mechanisms of Social Learning

[Abdellah Fourtassi]

I am pleased to announce a call for papers for an interdisciplinary special
issue on the *Neural and Behavioral Mechanisms of Social Learning* in
Frontiers Human Neuroscience.

*Submission deadline: May 31, 2024*

*Guest Editors*
Laura Agee (University of Texas at Austin)
Abdellah Fourtassi (Aix-Marseille University)
Marie Monfils (University of Texas at Austin)

*Submission Call:*
*link: *
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/56307/neural-and-behavioral-mechanisms-of-social-learning

Social learning can be broadly defined as the ability to learn from others
via observation, interaction, or instruction. This ability has been
demonstrated in a variety of species and serves as a vital way for animals
to acquire adaptively important information or behavior without having to
directly put themselves at risk. In humans, our ability to record, compile,
and modify information and behavioral processes across individuals and
generations means that information passed along via competent instruction
is not only low cost but high quality. As society becomes even more
interconnected, the ability to effectively acquire information socially –
and to identify unreliable social information - increasingly becomes an
even more vital part of our ability to function at an individual and
societal level.

Given the importance of social learning to human functioning, a thorough
understanding of how social learning occurs at a mechanistic level is
vital. While our understanding of how social learning occurs at the neural
and behavioral levels has been steadily increasing over the past few years,
we still lack a detailed understanding of the brain circuitry and
behavioral mechanisms underlying this form of learning. Recent advances in
neuroscience technology have provided us with new techniques that allow for
detailed, direct, and real-time observation of both brain and behavioral
activity in freely behaving animals (e.g., via calcium imaging and machine
learning-based behavior scoring) and humans (e.g., via advances in
hyperscanning techniques) which could greatly increase our understanding of
how the brain encodes socially acquired information. Similarly, advances in
transgenic, chemogenetic, and viral techniques now allow for highly
specific manipulations of biology in nonhuman animals. This allows us to
experimentally test the necessity of implicated proteins, structures, or
circuits for social learning to occur.

In this collection, we hope to gather research that would contribute to our
understanding of the brain and behavioral responses which do – or do not -
(1) underlie social learning or (2) contribute to deficits in social
learning. We are interested both in studies that have focused on defining
the biological underpinnings of social learning, and studies that provide
new information on the behavioral and environmental factors that contribute
to an animal’s ability to learn socially. Experimental or observational
studies focused on social learning mechanisms in human or non-human
animals, papers presenting computational models of social learning, or any
other work aimed at understanding the brain and behavioral mechanisms of
social learning are all welcome submissions.

-- 

Abdellah Fourtassi

Assistant Professor
Institute of Language, Communication, and the Brain
Aix-Marseille University, France
https://afourtassi.github.io/
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