Short CV

Dr. Francesco Papaleo is a tenured Senior Researcher and Group Leader of the Genetics of Cognition Laboratory at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genova, Italy. His research focuses on uncovering the mechanisms that underlie social and cognitive processes, and how these are altered in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Papaleo’s laboratory employs an interdisciplinary approach that bridges genetics, behavior, and neural circuit analyses. Combining studies in genetically modified mice with parallel clinical investigations in humans, his team integrates advanced techniques such as in vivo electrophysiology, chemogenetics, optogenetics, miniendoscops, and fiber photometry to link cell- and circuit-specific mechanisms with socio-cognitive behaviors. Before establishing his independent research program at IIT, Dr. Papaleo trained at the University of Padova (Italy, 1996-2002), University of Bordeaux (France, 2002-2005) and the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda (USA, 2005-2010).

Title of the talk

Neurobiology of the Social Brain

Abstract

Detecting and responding to the emotional states of others is a fundamental component of social interactions. Here, I will integrate a series of studies that establish a translational framework for emotion discrimination between mice and humans and delineate the multilevel neural architecture supporting these functions. Using ethologically grounded behavioral paradigms, we show that mice reliably discriminates conspecifics based on both positive and negative emotional states. At the subcortical level, oxytocin signaling from the hypothalamus to the central amygdala is a critical mechanism enabling emotion discrimination. At the cortical level, emotion discrimination relies on coordinated inhibitory microcircuits within the medial prefrontal cortex, where somatostatin-expressing neurons play a central role. Beyond local circuitry, we uncover a long-range cortico–cortical network linking the medial prefrontal and retrosplenial cortices that dynamically regulates emotion recognition through precisely timed inhibitory–excitatory interactions. This network is evolutionarily conserved, engaged during emotion recognition across species, and disrupted in models of psychiatric vulnerability. Finally, we demonstrate that emotion recognition is flexibly shaped by prior self-experience through corticotropin-releasing factor–dependent mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex. Together, these findings define emotion recognition as an active, experience-sensitive computation emerging from the interaction of cortical microcircuits and large-scale brain networks.