10 Years SNS Lab
10 Years SNS Lab
This month 10 years ago, the Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems research (SNS Lab) was inaugurated with an opening symposium. In this interdisciplinary laboratory, made possible thanks to the generous support from Branco Weiss, the University of Zurich, and the University Hospital Zurich, researchers explore the biological and neural mechanisms that underlie decision making. They combine cutting-edge brain imaging technologies with non-invasive brain stimulation, neuropharmacology, and computational modeling.
The heart of the lab is an fMRI Scanner, allowing visualization of active brain areas during cognitive processes. The findings help us understand the causes of human behaviors such as altruism, egoism, risk-taking, or self-control at the neural level. These insights into the brain have paved the way for a new area of research: neuroeconomics combines the fields of neuroscience, biology, psychology, and economics, and the SNS Lab puts the Department of Economics in an advantageous position and has led to it becoming a pioneer in the field.