Huge shoutout to Makaela and Ákos for their awesome new review of empathy and MDMA! Give it a read 🤩

It was a pleasure to host Dr. Camilla Bellone at the NIN last week! She presented her work on the neurobiology of social motivation, including social prediction errors and the role of dopamine in social isolation. Thank you for the inspiring talk!

@socialbrainlab.bsky.social
@nin-knaw.bsky.social

Our lab was at #CCN2025 in Amsterdam last week! 🧠
@juditcaba.bsky.social and @jiamiaoyang.bsky.social presented posters and had some great convos with fellow researchers.
🎉Big cheers to them and everyone who stopped by!
#BrainsAndCode

✨ Wanna earn 17€ and help science? We're running a fun eye-tracking 👀study on how people make decisions — about money, pain, and who’s affected (you, someone else, or a group). Based in Amsterdam. Curious? Sign up here: uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

🌟 We want to introduce our newest Postdoc Tousif! He integrates diverse data sources into mathematical models of neuronal dynamics to explore how neuronal activities in the brain unfolds into meaningful social interactions. We look forward to his findings! 🔬

At the end of June two SBL members presented their posters at the Organization for human brain mapping conference (#OHBM2025) in Brisbane Australia!
🔎 Judit and Jiamiao presented their brain signature and computational modeling results about social decision making. We are so proud of our PhDs! 💪

🫂 Last week our lab went on a 3-day retreat to Friesland. As the Social Brain Lab we know the importance of being social and team building with the lab members. The days were filled with fun, work, competition, knowledge sharing, and good food 🤝 📝

🎉 As the SBL is based in Amsterdam, we of course could not miss the celebration of the city’s 750th birthday! On the longest day of the year the lab members joined the festivities on the closed-off freeway we usually drive on to get to work, and had the best day in the sun! ☀️

🧠🔬 Our lab has a new study you can participate in! In 2 hours we test how physically and emotionally connected you and your roommate are, and you can both earn up to €30. Check the requirements below and email m.cariola@nin.knaw.nl to sign up or ask for more information. We we hope to see you soon!

Earlier this month some of our lab members attended the European Social Club conference in Coimbra. We are very proud of Lina and Chaoyi for their great presentations on fear learning and shared ACC circuits underlying empathy! ✨

To what extent does touch contribute to our overall wellbeing? YouTube video by Nederlands Herseninstituut

We are halfway through Mental Health Awareness month! Did you know consensual touch reduces anxiety, depression, and stress? 🫂 Take a moment to give someone you love a hug during #EuropeanMentalHealthWeek 💫 and find out more how hugs help in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Z-...

👏 Thank you Frédéric Michon for presenting at the NIN symposium! He discussed how the hippocampal network is involved in learning contextual threat memories through social observation. 🔎 Learning from others’ experiences can increase our survival chances. Excited to learn about his future research!

We really enjoyed the NIN’s Green Office 🌿 talk! They work hard to promote sustainable lab-practices by organising/attending events & spreading awareness through creative projects to inspire sustainable attitudes. We are excited for more labs to join the LEAF 🌱 initiative with SBL & the Salta group!

Unraveling the Neurobiology of Empathy and Compassion: Implications for Treatments for Brain Disorders and Human Well-Being: A Workshop Register for this event from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Join me, @clauslamm.bsky.social @valeriagazzola.bsky.social and many others For a @nationalacademies.org virtual workshop on May 19 and 21 on the biological mechanisms behind empathy and compassion. Register here: events.nationalacademies.org/44350_05-202...

This special issue features many innovative articles about adolescent social-cognitive neurobiological development by our collaborators @gutsproject.bsky.social on the Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) project 🤝

SBL has updated the website! ✨ Find all the most up-to-date information about our members and projects on socialbrainlab.org. Explore our mission, collaborations, or take a look at the informative videos! 🐭🧠

PhD student @floranelissen.bsky.social recently presented her literature review about her collaboration with Postdoc Eugenia Poh from the Willuhn group 🤝 Their project investigates how past experiences affect social behavior and the underlying dopamine signals 🔎🐭🧠 Thank you for the wonderful talk!

🚨 Internship Opportunity Alert!🚨Are you passionate about social learning, decision-making, and computational modeling? Join us and dive into groundbreaking research with our innovative team🌟Apply now!

🔗 nin.nl/internships/...

#Internship #Neuroscience #Research #SocialBrainLab #Opportunity

A huge congratulations to our PhD student Flora Nelissen and collaborators Baptiste Heiles and David Maresca on their Science publication and front cover! 🎉
This paper revolutionizes visualizing acoustic reporter genes and biosensors in-vivo with high-resolution and volumetric ultrasound imaging

✨🔎 Look at this cool piece our collaborator wrote!

Super cool!

Check out 🔍this cool neuron imaged by our very own
@bbczky.bsky.social🔬

🧠🎨 It’s Brain Awareness Week! In line with this year’s theme “Brain and Art: Creativity in Mind” current SBL members & alumni are working with @neuronarratives.bsky.social! This weekend the artists and neuroscientists will be paired to start on their exciting collaboration!
#NeuroNarrativesUpdates

Welcome to our new postdoc Lena Kaufmann! Lena will be investigating emotional contagion during free interaction and movement with others. We are excited to learn more about the effects of seeing negative experiences on neural population dynamics in the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex.

Workshop with machines and tools in the background

Workbench with electronic boxes and materials

We toured the NIN Mechatronics facilities! From laser cutting to 3D printing, we saw how the skilled craftsmen of Microscopy 🔬, Electronics, and the Workshop 🔨 come together to create the experimental setups that make @nin-knaw.bsky.social research work 🤝 Thank you for sharing your work with us!

The SBL welcomes Monia Cariola, our new research assistant! She will be investigating the physiological effects of empathy in an exciting comparative study. This in-vivo research design will give much insight into how the body reacts when seeing others in pain.

Congratulations!

Thank you Monique Smith (@moeneuro.bsky.social) for your interesting symposium talk on the social transfer model of empathy! 👏 This visit sparked many new ideas and we are excited to dive into our new collaborative research! 🔎🧠🚀

Internship Investigating Pain and Empathy - Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - Master the Mind

The social brain lab is looking for an intern! 🧠
Their study focuses on understanding how humans respond physiologically to vicarious pain, using electrical stimulation to induce pain while adjusting intensity to each participant’s tolerance.

Learn more and apply here: nin.nl/internships/...

The SBL holiday party 🎉 was a great success! We relaxed with Tai Chi workshop from the School of T'ai Chi Chuan, exchanged gifts, and ate some delicious food during a pub quiz. Here's to another social year in the lab! ✨🐭🧠