Simultaneous oscillatory encoding of "hot" and "cold" information during social interactions in the monkey medial prefrontal cortex

Fabio Di Bello; Rossella Falcone; Aldo Genovesio

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109559

Simultaneous oscillatory encoding of "hot" and "cold" information during social interactions in the monkey medial prefrontal cortex

iScience. 2024 Mar 25;27(5):109559. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109559. eCollection 2024 May 17.

Authors

Fabio Di Bello¹, Rossella Falcone^{1

2}, Aldo Genovesio¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
² Leo M. Davidoff Department of Neurological Surgery, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Montefiore Medical Center Bronx, Bronx, NY, USA.

Abstract

Social interactions in primates require social cognition abilities such as anticipating the partner's future choices as well as pure cognitive skills involving processing task-relevant information. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been implicated in these cognitive processes. Here, we investigated the neural oscillations underlying the complex social behaviors involving the interplay of social roles (Actor vs. Observer) and interaction types (whether working with a "Good" or "Bad" partner). We found opposite power modulations of the beta and gamma bands by social roles, indicating dedicated processing for task-related information. Concurrently, the interaction type was conveyed by lower frequencies, which are commonly associated with neural circuits linked to performance and reward monitoring. Thus, the mPFC exhibits parallel coding of both "cold" processes (purely cognitive) and "hot" processes (reward and social-related). This allocation of neural resources gives the mPFC a key neural node, flexibly integrating multiple sources of information during social interactions.

Keywords: Neuroscience; Social sciences.