T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience

The T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience (SDN) is directed by Colin Camerer, the Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics. This Center studies how human brains make decisions as individuals, and in groups and during collective action, where knowledge and actions of other people influence how the brain computes social influence. The SDN approach is highly computational—that is, we use mathematical algorithms to approximately describe how people are perceiving the world, processing information, and computing beliefs and valuations in order to make choices. Knowing where in the brain these neural circuits are located enables us to do causal studies (e.g. disrupting brain activity to see how behavior changes) and understand the computational basis of psychiatric disorders.

Center scientists all study humans. We actively "trade" ideas and methods with adjacent disciplines, including computer science, economic theory, psychiatry, and political science. While our focus is on humans, some studies (and particularly collaborations outside of Caltech) also compare behavior and neural activity of humans and non-human animals to understand similarities and differences. Our Center is also interested in how neuroscientific concepts can be used to create theories of behavior such as habits, and then use those theories to analyze habits in large everyday datasets (such as phone usage or exercise and sleep).

Most of the Center scientists tackle questions that involve balancing two or more objectives in a way that is either computationally challenging for the brain (e.g., now vs. the future, self vs. other) or creates special types of conflicts of general human interest (e.g., saying no to tempting foods). We study questions such as: How do we integrate value for ourselves and for other people or charities? How do people learn what is valuable from actions of other people? How are anxiety and fear represented in the brain in lifelike situations, like being chased by a virtual predator or seeing an actual spider? These anxiety and fear reactions are thought to be a byproduct of "survival circuitry" evolved to help us stay alive, but repurposed for more modern threats. How do people make tradeoffs between immediate and abstract distant rewards, such as choosing foods which vary in how tempting and healthy they are? Is it true that "choice overload" makes large numbers of choices overwhelming to the brain?

Center scientists are also interested in deep biological differences between people, such as brain structure and intelligence and inferences about behaviors from faces, including political corruption.

A core mission of the Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience is to provide seed funding for Caltech faculty pursuing highly innovative projects. In these projects, preliminary data are usually necessary to show that a project is feasible, and what is likely to result, in order to receive larger-scale research funding. Chen funds generate these "proof of concept" data.

Seed Research Projects funded by the Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience

The Center sponsors innovation grants for both graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. These grants give trainees the opportunity to pursue research projects unrelated to the research in their labs. The Center also funds a Shared Postdoctoral Fellowship program which is intended to encourage new or boundary-crossing collaborations across the wide range of Caltech neuroscience, specifically for projects with a focus on social and decision neuroscience.

In addition to the grant and fellowship programs the Center hosts symposiums and seminars, including an annual Distinguished Lecture series, as well as regular seminars by international decision neuroscientists, sometimes in half-day "mini-conferences" combining three invited speakers and short "flash talks" by PhD students and postdocs.