The defining feature of the primate brain is its social acumen. Humans and other advanced social species continuously navigate diverse social contexts and make decisions shaped by prosocial, antisocial, or other strategic preferences. This talk will present an overview of ongoing research efforts aimed at understanding the neural mechanisms of social decision-making and social interaction. Focusing on the prefrontal–amygdala circuits, we will first examine the neural codes representing decision variables for self and other, as well as the inter-areal coordination that supports social preference. In the context of naturalistic and unstructured social interactions, we will examine how prefrontal–amygdala circuits encode multiple interactive social gaze variables that guide dynamic social attention, and how the prefrontal cortex integrates social evidence gathered from strategic gaze to support cooperative decision-making. Together, these studies help inform basic neural principles of social decision-making and interaction, providing insights into the evolutionary roots of human social cognition.
Speaker: Steve Chang, PhD, Yale University, Department of Psychology
UC San Diego’s Center for Research on Empathy and Compassion proudly presents the Empathy & Compassion Research Speaker Series for Summer 2026.
This free virtual series highlights the impactful and groundbreaking research that Sanford Institute-affiliated faculty and researchers have played an integral role in. This series is designed for anyone with an interest in empathy and compassion in neurobiology and healthcare.
The hosting organization, T. Denny Sanford Institute of Empathy and Compassion, represents an unprecedented blending of two parallel themes: employing the unyielding rigor and tools of science to establish the neurological basis for empathy in the brain to identify the mechanisms that transform compassion from biology to behavior, and experimenting with and developing new ways to teach and instill empathy and compassion in clinicians currently practicing and in the teaching of future generations of health professionals.
Register here for this free online event. Please note, this event has been standardized to the Eastern Time Zone.