# CRCNS:Predictability as a New Paradigm for Rodent Social Neurobiology

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $441,940

## Abstract

A long-lasting social attachment is built over a course of positive interactions with another individual.
Forming such social bonds involves cognitive processes like perceiving salient sensory cues, learning their
positive value, and selecting appropriately prosocial behavioral actions. Elucidating the mechanisms of such
a complex natural behavior is a Strategic Objective of the NIMH. Our proposal will advance this Objective by
contributing new knowledge within the RDoC domains of Social Processes, Positive Valence and Cognitive
Systems. Our long-term goal is to enable a more vertical understanding of how molecular mechanisms
influence neural circuits underlying moment-by-moment processes that must occur to build enduring social
bonds. Our objective here is to use the principles of stereotypy and predictability to elucidate the behavioral
and neural dynamics that underlie social bonding in the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), a premier
system for uncovering genetic and neuroendocrine mechanisms of social attachments. We will measure
social behaviors and striatal, cortical and amygdalar neural activity over long time scales and build
predictive models of the social dynamics leading to a bond. Our central hypothesis is that trajectories of
stereotyped social behaviors and corresponding neural activity are predictable from a latent internal state of
"pair-bondedness"; and that modeling the dynamics of this latent state will help predict future social
interactions between pair-bonded prairie voles. We will quantify the predictability of such interactions in
ethologically-relevant social contexts using past social behavior (Aim 1) and behavior-specific dynamic
functional connectivity between those key nodes in the social brain neural network (Aim 2). Our research will
have a positive impact by validating a novel, quantitative framework for studying the "dark matter" of social
neuroscience, grounded in the idea that there is predictability in the dynamic processes that underlie one's
trajectory through a behavioral space of stereotypical social interactions. By establishing predictability as a
new paradigm for rodent social neurobiology, our studies will thus advance a comprehensive framework for
how to think about social deficits and how to encourage prosocial behavior.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9967118
- **Project number:** 5R01MH115831-04
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Gordon Joseph Berman
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $441,940
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-13 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9967118

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9967118, CRCNS:Predictability as a New Paradigm for Rodent Social Neurobiology (5R01MH115831-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9967118. Licensed CC0.

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