ABSTRACT
Support is requested for a Keystone Symposia conference entitled Neurocircuitry of Social Behavior, organized
by Drs. Hee-Sup Shin, Larry Young, Hailan Hu and Carmen Sandi. The conference will be held in Daejeon
Convention Center, Daejeon, South Korea from September 4-7, 2022.
Many psychiatric disorders are characterized by impairments in social cognition and behavior. The global
pandemic has disrupted social experiences with unknown enduring consequences. There is a critical need to
understand the neural circuits underlying social behavior so that we may develop new treatments for social
impairments. This Keystone Symposia conference will focus on neural processes regulating normative social
behaviors. Traditionally, social neuroscientists have not analyzed social processes at a circuit level, while
other neuroscientists, who are delving into the circuitry of social processes, do not necessarily have the same
insights as do social neuroscientists. Therefore, an aim of this conference is to develop a network of
researchers to bridge this gap. In addition, through this conference, participants will be encouraged to both
incorporate advanced technologies into their study of social neuroscience and to broaden their scope to
include social behavior in their research program. This conference program will include the latest innovative
contributions to social neuroscience and will address key questions in the field from a neural circuit perspective
(i.e. social recognition, social decision making, social bonding and nurturing, aggression, social stress and
empathy). Consequently, this conference will bring about a paradigm shift in the traditional social
neuroscience field and initiate discussions between much broader communities than has taken place thus far.
The conference will provide an unprecedented opportunity for trainees and early career investigators interested
in social neuroscience to network with the leading scientists from around the world who are making
foundational discoveries on the mechanisms of the social brain and provide them with an opportunity to
present their work to the social neuroscience community.