Social regulation of survival circuits through learning. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Olsson, Andreas; FeldmanHall, Oriel; Haaker, Jan; Hensler, Tove
• Is Part Of: Current opinion in behavioral sciences. Volume 24(2018)
• Page Start: 161
• Page End: 167
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.09.016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2352-1546

Abstract

Abstract : In social species such our own, learning about the value of things, people and situations often takes place in social situations. Here, we review new cross-species research on the social regulation of basic survival functions, such as defensive responses that are linked to basic learning processes. We show that domain-general learning brain circuits, specifically those involved in Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning, integrate information from the social domain to aid a variety of phenomena, ranging from social avoidance to the learning of moral values. We review behavioral and neural evidence highlighting both similarities and differences between social and non-social forms of learning, and suggest an integrative framework of social learning of value with the aim to further our mechanistic understanding of the interaction between survival circuits and social learning.