Medical Physics Lunchtime Seminar: Antonia Hamilton

Social interaction in the human brain: explorations using fNIRS, mocap and virtual reality

Abstract:

People often spontaneously imitate each other without thinking, but why do they do this and what brain mechanisms mediate this behaviour?  Here I will present a series of studies which use new technologies to examine the brain and cognitive mechanisms underlying basic social behaviours.  The results show that children and adults copy even silly actions and more when they are being watched. However, different behaviours are seen in those with autism spectrum conditions. Using fNIRS, we can now explore the neural mechanisms of these everyday social interactions.  I will present new data from fNIRS studies and explore some of the engineering challenges that we face in creating a cognitive science of real world social behaviour.

Biography:

Dr Hamilton is a Reader in Social Neuroscience and leader of the Social Neuroscience group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (UCL). She completed a PhD on the impact of neuronal noise for the optimal control of human arm movements (UCL), and postdoctoral work on imitation in autism and brain systems for action understanding. She was a lecturer at the University of Nottingham until 2013, and was awarded the Experimental Psychology Society prize lectureship for 2013. Her current research interests include how and why people imitate each other, how social skills differ in autism, and the neural mechanisms of social interaction.  This work is funded by the ERC and the Leverhulme Trust.

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