There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
<p id="P1">We live in a world that is largely socially constructed, and are constantly
involved
in and fundamentally influenced by a broad array of complex social interactions. Social
behaviors among conspecifics, either conflictive or cooperative, are exhibited by
all sexually reproducing animal species, and are essential for the health, survival,
and reproduction of animals. Conversely, impairment in social function is a prominent
feature of several neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorders and
schizophrenia. Despite the importance of social behaviors, many fundamental questions
remain unanswered. How is social sensory information processed and integrated in the
nervous system? How are different social behavioral decisions selected and modulated
in brain circuits? Here we discuss conceptual issues and recent advances in our understanding
of brain regions and neural circuit mechanisms underlying the regulation of social
behaviors.
</p>