The mission of the Simons Center for the Social Brain is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition and behavior, and to translate this knowledge into better diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
The Simons Center studies the underlying mechanisms of ASD in both humans and relevant model organisms and systems, as neural correlates of social cognition and behavior exist in diverse species. Experimental approaches take advantage of MIT’s strengths in genetics and genomics, molecular and cell biology, analyses of neural circuits and systems, cognitive psychology, mathematics and engineering.
Mriganka Sur serves as the founding director of the Simons Center for the Social Brain.