Thesis advisor: John P. Christianson / In social species, animals must detect, evaluate and respond to the states of other individuals in their group. A constellation of gestures, vocalizations, and chemosignals enable animals to convey affect and arousal to others in nuanced, multisensory ways. Observers integrate such social information with environmental cues and internal physiology to general social behavioral responses via a process called social decision-making. The mechanisms and anatomical correlates of social decision-making, particularly those that allow behavioral responses to others’ emotional states, are not fully known. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to broaden the anatomical understanding of social decision-making by investigating the role of the insular cortex in social behaviors that depend upon others’ emotional state. Using a novel behavioral paradigm, I present causal evidence that implicates the insular cortex and its projections to the nucleus accumbens in social affective behavior. These findings are consistent with evidence from the literature that suggests insular cortex is positioned to convey sensory cues to social brain structures to produce flexible and appropriate behavioral responses to social affective cues. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_108375 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Rogers-Carter, Morgan M. |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). |
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