Replay shapes abstract cognitive maps for efficient social navigation

Abstract

ABSTRACTTo make adaptive social decisions, people must anticipate how information flows through their social network. While this requires knowledge of how people are connected, networks are too large to have firsthand experience with every possible route between individuals. How, then, are people able to accurately track information flow through social networks? We find that people cache abstract knowledge about social network structure as they learn who is friends with whom, which enables the identification of efficient routes between remotely-connected individuals. These cognitive maps of social networks, which are built immediately after learning, are then reshaped through overnight rest. During these extended periods of rest, a replay-like mechanism helps to make these maps increasingly abstract, which especially privileges improvements in social navigation accuracy for the longest communication paths spanning distinct communities. Together, these findings provide mechanistic insight into the sophisticated mental representations humans use for social navigation.