Helmholtz Lecture Beatrice de Gelder, January 17: The social brain inside out. Combining virtual Reality, computational movement analysis and brain imaging

Helmholtz lecture Beatrice de Gelder (Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University)

Title: The social brain inside out. Combining virtual Reality, computational movement analysis and brain imaging

Abstract: Survival prompts organisms to rapidly prepare adaptive behavior in response to environmental and social circumstances.  Within milliseconds, observing whole body postures and movements triggers a cascade of implicit and explicit processes in the brain, dedicated to computing information about the movement, action, emotion, and intention of the person, to prepare an appropriate reaction. The rapidity and automaticity of those responses indicate that the brain is exquisitely tuned to extract social information online from ongoing observation of social behavior. This requires sorting out what to keep as critical information for adaptive action and what to disregard as of secondary importance. Such rapid analysis of perceptual input is presumably independent of higher-order cognition and consciousness.  So far little is understood about what the specific features of the behavior of a conspecific are that are critical and that trigger, for example, defensive behavior. In this talk we will review recent studies that have attempted to use computational methods to analyses body posture and whole body movements. We will then illustrate how the results from the   computational analyses and the features that are proposed  by it may be related to brain activity.  Our discussion will address the promises and limits of developing optimal measurement tools for social behavior that can be used for unraveling social brain processes and deficits in neurological populations. 

Location: Ruppert building room Paars (Purple), Leuvenlaan 21 3584 CE Utrecht

Helmholtz Lectures take place from 4 to 5pm, with drinks afterwards next to the lecture room. Lectures are hybrid and streamed live via Teams. Note that streaming and recording the lectures are an additional service and this cannot be guaranteed.

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