SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE
Discovery Day 2026 will take place on Monday, February 16, 2026, at the University of Haifa. The symposium is organized by Prof. Shlomo Wagner and Dr. Dudi Deutsch (University of Haifa), together with Dr. Ben Engelhard (Technion). The symposium is funded by the Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center (IBBRC), the Haifa Brain and Behavior Hub (HBBH) and the faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa
Social Neuroscience: Mechanisms of the Social Brain Across Species
Social behavior is essential for survival and reproduction across the animal kingdom, yet the neural mechanisms that support its moment-to-moment control remain only partially understood. This one-day meeting will bring together researchers from diverse model systems—including flies, fish, rodents, bats, and humans—who share a common goal: to uncover the mechanistic principles of the social brain.
Social interactions are shaped by the dynamic integration of multisensory cues, internal states, and past experience. Understanding how the brain parses, prioritizes, and responds to complex social signals requires a multidisciplinary approach, spanning molecular, cellular, circuit-level, and systems neuroscience. By uniting experts across species and methodologies—from functional imaging in humans to circuit dissection in flies and rodents—this meeting will highlight converging insights and complementary strategies for dissecting the neural basis of social behavior.
The program will emphasize mechanistic studies that link brain activity to behavioral output, in both health and disease. Topics will include sensory processing in social contexts, neural encoding of social cues, neuromodulation of social motivation, and the disruption of social circuits in neuropsychiatric disorders.
By fostering cross-species dialogue and methodological exchange, this meeting aims to sharpen our understanding of core principles in social neurobiology and to inspire new collaborations across disciplinary boundaries.