Conceptual representation in social cognition: frame-theoretical representation of "social partner" (D03)

• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 192776181

D03 will refine our understanding of the role of social ultrasonic vocalization signals in shaping prosocial behavior in rats. The project will investigate how rats learn novel social actions within a social reinforcement learning framework. It will elucidate how the multilevel conceptual representation of ultrasonic vocalizations as sig-nals with physical, social and motivational significance are implemented in the brain, using simultaneous elec-trophysiological recordings of local field potentials and single unit activity. In close interaction with project B09, the empirical work of D03 will be complemented by theoretical efforts, based on Löbner’s cascade model of action, to explain how a rat conceptually represents its social world and how it learns to perform social actions.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 991: The Structure of Representations in Language, Cognition and Science
• Applicant Institution: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
• Project Head: Professor Tobias Kalenscher, Ph.D.