Probabilistic inference of social presence across brain scales reveals enhanced synaptic efficacy.

ABSTRACT: The presence of conspecifics is a fundamental and arguably invariant prerequisite of social cognition across numerous animal species. While the influence of social presence on behavior has been among the focal points of investigation in social psychology for over a century, its underlying neural mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Here, we attempt to bridge this gap by investigating how the presence of conspecifics changes synaptic efficacy from measurements across spatiotemporal brain scales, and how such changes could lead to modulations of task performance in monkeys and humans. In monkeys performing an association learning task, social presence increased excitatory synaptic efficacy in attention-oriented regions dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. In humans

SUBMITTER: Esmaeili A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12630940 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature