Linking Social Cognition to Learning and Memory

Abstract

Many mammals have evolved to be social creatures. In humans, the ability to learn from others' experiences is essential to survival; and from an early age, individuals are surrounded by a social environment that helps them develop a variety of skills, such as walking, talking, and avoiding danger. Similarly, in rodents, behaviors, such as food preference, exploration of novel contexts, and social approach, can be learned through social interaction. Social encounters facilitate new learning and help modify preexisting memories throughout the lifespan of an organism. Moreover, social encounters can help buffer stress or the effects of negative memories, as well as extinguish maladaptive behaviors. Given the importance of such interactions, there has been increasing work studying social learning and applying its concepts in a wide range of fields, including psychotherapy and medical sociology. The process of social learning, including its neural and behavioral mechanisms, has also been a rapidly growing field of interest in neuroscience. However, the term "social learning" has been loosely applied to a variety of psychological phenomena, often without clear definition or delineations. Therefore, this review gives a definition for specific aspects of social learning, provides an overview of previous work at the circuit, systems, and behavioral levels, and finally, introduces new findings on the social modulation of learning. We contextualize such social processes in the brain both through the role of the hippocampus and its capacity to process "social engrams" as well as through the brainwide realization of social experiences. With the integration of new technologies, such as optogenetics, chemogenetics, and calcium imaging, manipulating social engrams will likely offer a novel therapeutic target to enhance the positive buffering effects of social experiences or to inhibit fear-inducing social stimuli in models of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Experience-Regulated Neuronal Signaling in Maternal Behavior

“…Learning maternal care from more experienced females would improve survival of the progeny, and both wild and laboratory mice as well as rats prefer to rear their young in communal nests and nurse their own and other mothers’ pups (Branchi, 2009 ; Heiderstadt and Blizard, 2011 ; Weidt et al, 2014 ). This process is perhaps somewhat similar to the role of memory processes in generating social learning (Basu and Siegelbaum, 2015 ; Leblanc and Ramirez, 2020 ).…”

Social Reactivation of Fear Engrams Enhances Memory Recall

“…The impact of exposure to a stressed conspecific through the 1-way mirror compared to the opaque wall suggests that distressed mice emit different auditory-olfactory stimuli depending on their perceived social context. We speculate that the lack of a memory enhancing effect as a result of full interaction with a recently shocked cagemate could be due to social buffering (Leblanc and Ramirez, 2020) of the distressed mouse’s emissions, or to the intensity of direct, physical social contact with the distressed cagemate.…”

“…For group-living species such as humans and rodents, conspecific interactions directly impact social learning and memory (Hoppitt and Laland, 2008; Leblanc and Ramirez, 2020), and pervasively shape emotion (Neumann and Strack, 2000; Reavis et al, 2015; Williamson and Austin Williamson), attention (Caplin et al, 2015), and cognitive ability (Dause and Kirby, 2019; Doulames et al, 2014; Heimer-McGinn et al, 2020; Kuhlmann et al, 2005). Higher-order cognitive processes such as memory within a social brain are thus interlaced with social influences.…”

Macro- and micro-structural cerebellar and cortical characteristics of cognitive empathy towards fictional characters in healthy individuals

“…One of the most advanced social functions is the empathic capacity that allows sharing the affective states of others, exerting cognitive control, predicting, and understanding others’ feelings, motivations and actions, and behaving accordingly 16 . In humans and non-human animals, the empathy is aimed at promoting prosocial and cooperative behaviors 16 – 19 . This psychological construct is regulated by both affective and cognitive components that produce the emotional understanding 20 .…”