Summary: Neurons in the anterior cingulate encode social rank to guide decisions during group competition. These discoveries may inform our understanding of social deficits seen in conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia.
Source: Mass General
Researchers have identified specific brain cells in mice that shape competitive interactions and influence the social dynamics of groups.
A study published in Nature and led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reports that neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex carry detailed information about social rank and use that information to shape future choices during competition. The work offers new perspectives for researchers studying social behavior in humans and the neural basis of disorders marked by altered social interactions.
“Most neuroscience studies focus on two animals interacting, yet real-world social behavior usually happens in larger groups,” says lead author S. William Li, an MD/Ph.D. student at MGH. “To address that gap, we developed a naturalistic paradigm that allowed us to wirelessly track large cohorts of mice across thousands of competitive group interactions, revealing how social dynamics unfold at scale.”
By combining continuous behavioral monitoring with neural recordings, the team found that an individual’s position in the group hierarchy closely predicted competitive success. Importantly, recordings from neurons in the anterior cingulate showed that these cells hold representations of social rank relative to other group members and that this information is used to forecast and drive future behavior.
“Collectively, these neurons represented the group’s moment-to-moment behavior as the animals competed for food,” explains senior author Ziv M. Williams, MD, a neurosurgical oncologist at MGH. “They encoded not only rank and the outcomes of past interactions but also contextual signals about available resources and the environment, allowing animals to make adaptive decisions before competition even began.”
Crucially, the researchers used neuromodulation to manipulate these anterior cingulate neurons and demonstrated causal effects on competitive drive. Activating or suppressing this neuronal population increased or decreased an animal’s effort in contests, selectively altering competitive performance without broadly changing locomotion or general motivation. “We were able to dial competitive drive up or down, and these effects depended on an animal’s social standing within the group,” Williams notes.
These results indicate that success in competition is not determined solely by physical ability but is strongly shaped by neural signals that regulate competitive drive. According to Li, “These anterior cingulate neurons integrate information about the social environment, the group’s behavior, and prior outcomes to compute how an individual should act under specific circumstances.”
Beyond basic insights into group ecology and social competition, identifying the neural circuits that encode rank and motivate effort provides a framework for studying conditions in which social processing is altered. Disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia involve complex social deficits—difficulty interpreting norms, adjusting behavior within groups, or engaging appropriately with others—and a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying group dynamics could help illuminate these challenges.
“Many neurocognitive conditions manifest in atypical social behavior across multiple dimensions,” Williams says. “By revealing how specific frontal neurons adaptively drive competition and track social context, this work opens avenues for exploring how these processes go awry in clinical populations.”
Additional contributors to the study include Omer Zeliger, Leah Strahs, Raymundo Báez-Mendoza, Lance M. Johnson, and Adian McDonald Wojciechowski.
About this behavioral neuroscience research news
Author: Press Office
Source: Mass General
Contact: Press Office – Mass General
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Original Research: Closed access.
“Frontal neurons driving competitive behaviour and ecology of social groups” by S. William Li et al. Nature
Abstract
Frontal neurons driving competitive behaviour and ecology of social groups
Competitive interactions shape the ecology and social structure of animal groups, requiring individuals to modulate effort based on both resource availability and the behavior and social rank of others. The cellular mechanisms that drive these adaptive behaviors have been largely unknown.
Using a naturalistic group paradigm that allowed large cohorts of mice to forage competitively while wireless neural recordings captured activity across thousands of interactions, the researchers identified anterior cingulate neurons that represent an animal’s social rank relative to groupmates. These cells separated rank signals from immediate competitive actions and also incorporated cues about resources, environment, and prior success to inform decision-making.
Multiclass decoding models showed these neurons tracked other individuals and could predict upcoming success. Neuromodulation experiments demonstrated that manipulating this population changed competitive effort in a condition-dependent manner: increasing effort when animals were relatively dominant and decreasing it when they were subordinate—effects not seen in other frontal regions.
Overall, the findings reveal a population of cingulate neurons that adaptively drive competitive interactions and suggest a neural mechanism by which social and economic behaviors of groups can be mediated.