Every day we communicate with and influence others via language, decision-making, and actions. The complexities of human social interactions and language begs the question of how the brain processes the relevant incoming information and then generates responses so rapidly and effortlessly. Neurosurgeon Ziv Williams and his team at Harvard Medical School have made major advances in answering these questions. By recording the activities of hundreds of individual neurons in the brains of non-human primates in game-theory paradigms of social cooperation and conflict he has identified neurons in the prefrontal cortex that encode social agent identity. Moreover, by recording from neurons in the brains of human patients undergoing brain surgery his team has identified neurons involved in single elements of speech production or in the semantic encoding during language comprehension. These findings not only advance an understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of social interactions and language, but also provide insight into disorders involving alterations in these processes.

LINKS

Dr. Williams Harvard webpage

https://zivwilliams.mgh.harvard.edu/

Neuronal circuits for social decision-making

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8517320/pdf/fnins-15-720294.pdf

Social agent identity cells in the prefrontal cortex of interacting groups of primates.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8571805/pdf/nihms-1752328.pdf

Single-neuronal predictions of others' beliefs in humans.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7990696/pdf/nihms-1654341.pdf

Single-neuronal elements of speech production in humans.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10866697/pdf/41586_2023_Article_6982.pdf

Semantic encoding during language comprehension at single-cell resolution.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11254762/pdf/41586_2024_Article_7643.pdf

One in seven people experience migraine headaches while others suffer with even more debilitating cluster headaches. The causes of these headaches are not fully understood and current treatments provide only partial relief. In this episode pharmacologist Antoinette van den Brink and neurologist Rolf Fronczek describe the clinical features of these headaches, the current understanding of their causes, and hormonal and environmental factors that can trigger the headaches. Drugs that inhibit the peptide CGRP and electrical stimulation of the occipital nerve are among treatments shown to be effective in reducing headache intensity or duration.

LINKS

University webpages:

https://www.erasmusmc.nl/en/research/researchers/maassen-van-den-brink-antoinette

https://hoofdpijnonderzoek.nl/en/team/dr-rolf-fronczek/

Migraine headache articles

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/03331024241238153

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10863119/pdf/10194_2024_Article_1724.pdf

Cluster headache articles

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7018790/pdf/40263_2019_Article_696.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10755111/pdf/main.pdf

Consciousness is one’s awareness of electrochemically conveyed information coming into the brain from the environment via sensory pathways or generated within the brain’s neuronal networks (i.e., thoughts). In popular culture ‘consciousness’ is often portrayed as a mysterious concept or process. However, research that examines the effects of anesthetics, sleep, brain injuries, and psychedelics on neuronal network activity using fMRI, EEG and other technologies is revealing the circuits and activity patterns that enable consciousness. In this episode University of Cambridge Professor Andrea Luppi talks about his research on the neurochemical and neural network level underpinnings of consciousness. His integration of fMRI and brain connectome data suggest the importance of ‘gateway neuronal networks’ and ‘broadcasters’ (executive control networks) in human consciousness. We also discuss consciousness from philosophical and evolutionary perspectives.

LINKS

Professor Luppi’s profile at the University of Cambridge

https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/member/al857/

Recent review article on consciousness

https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0166-2236%2824%2900087-0

Gateway regions and broadcasters

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11257694/pdf/elife-88173.pdf