A Conversation with Daniela Schiller.

Abstract

Dr. Schiller: My research is on navigating “social space” and our “model system” is the human brain. Our behavioral protocols are probably more naturalistic and complex, but they are tightly linked to knowledge gained from basic neuroscience, in particular, regarding the spatial navigation system. We examine the hippocampus and related areas that are dedicated to navigating physical space. Similar areas are also implicated in episodic memory, and it is unclear how the two functions are related or why they are subserved by similar brain regions. One idea is that these systems perform a relational computation: They track statistical regularities and relationships between continuous dimensions. We took this idea into the domain of social relationships because social interactions could be framed as trajectories evolving in a two-dimensional social space framed by power and affiliation.