NEURAL ENCODING OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN THE DORSAL ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX OF OCTODON DEGUS

Author

Patrick David Hanni, University of Montana, MissoulaFollow

Year of Award

2024

Document Type

Professional Paper - Campus Access Only

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Psychology

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

Experimental Psychology

Department or School/College

Psychology

Committee Chair

Dr. Allen Szalda-Petree

Commitee Members

Dr. Yoonhee Jang, Dr. Kasper Hansen

Subject Categories

Applied Behavior Analysis | Behavioral Neurobiology | Biological Psychology | Cognition and Perception | Cognitive Neuroscience | Cognitive Psychology | Computational Neuroscience | Experimental Analysis of Behavior | Social Psychology | Systems Neuroscience

Abstract

The medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) can be thought of as the pre-motor cortex decision-making area in the brain (Fine & Hayden, 2021), where the activity then dictates “action plans” in a hierarchy of goals. Within the mPFC, the dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex (dACC) has specifically displayed activity leading to behavioral change such as exploration and changes in social stimuli interactions; however, the specifics for the stimuli whether it be a novel animal or a specific action outcome that determines the neuronal firing patterns in the dACC are unknown. For this reason, 12 tetrodes recording electrophysiological data during social and object investigation were implanted into the dACC of the Octodon Degu, a rodent model starting to be used in social cognitive studies. The subjects were implanted and then once healed, placed in a chamber and exposed to a battery of social interactions with random conspecifics or novel objects, counterbalancing the order and chamber location to ensure minimize experimental confounds. In the current report, evidence presenting support of neuronal encoding for social situations is provided by a significant difference between firing rates of social/non-social behaviors within neurons using Rank Sum tests, displaying the potential that the dACC encodes social contextual behaviors on the reflexive self.

Recommended Citation

Hanni, Patrick David, "NEURAL ENCODING OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN THE DORSAL ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX OF OCTODON DEGUS" (2024). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12292.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12292