Ziv Williams: Encoding Social Cognition and Language in Individual Neurons and Neuronal Ensembles

Every day we communicate with and influence others via language, decision-making, and actions. The complexities of human social interactions and language begs the question of how the brain processes the relevant incoming information and then generates responses so rapidly and effortlessly. Neurosurgeon Ziv Williams and his team at Harvard Medical School have made major advances in answering these questions. By recording the activities of hundreds of individual neurons in the brains of non-human primates in game-theory paradigms of social cooperation and conflict he has identified neurons in the prefrontal cortex that encode social agent identity. Moreover, by recording from neurons in the brains of human patients undergoing brain surgery his team has identified neurons involved in single elements of speech production or in the semantic encoding during language comprehension. These findings not only advance an understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of social interactions and language, but also provide insight into disorders involving alterations in these processes.

LINKS

Dr. Williams Harvard webpage

https://zivwilliams.mgh.harvard.edu/

Neuronal circuits for social decision-making

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8517320/pdf/fnins-15-720294.pdf

Social agent identity cells in the prefrontal cortex of interacting groups of primates.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8571805/pdf/nihms-1752328.pdf

Single-neuronal predictions of others' beliefs in humans.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7990696/pdf/nihms-1654341.pdf

Single-neuronal elements of speech production in humans.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10866697/pdf/41586_2023_Article_6982.pdf

Semantic encoding during language comprehension at single-cell resolution.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11254762/pdf/41586_2024_Article_7643.pdf