RUI: Neurobiology of seasonal sociality in voles

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Why do some species live in large groups while others interact only to reproduce? This project investigates neural sources of variation in mammalian social behavior, including pathways that support motivation to interact with others and social tolerance. Most of what is known about the neurobiology of social attachments comes from research on mothering and monogamy, while little is known about non-reproductive relationships. The goal of this project is to examine where and how the hormone oxytocin acts in the brain to influence social behavior between peers. This is approached with behavioral, pharmacological, and molecular genetic studies of meadow voles. Meadow voles display environmentally induced variation in social behavior, acting aggressive and territorial in summer months, but living in social groups in winter. These experiments will investigate how seasonal changes in neurochemistry, particularly in oxytocin circuitry, underlie changing anxiety, social tolerance, and social attachments. This fills a gap in our understanding of social relationships by adding the study of non-reproductive peer relationships, and contributes important basic information on how oxytocin contributes to both prosocial and antisocial behaviors in different brain regions. These findings will have implications for understanding sociality across social species, particularly in mammals. These studies will be conducted at a women's college, providing training opportunities for undergraduate women, many from under-represented groups. Students will serve in leadership roles and participate in all aspects of this research including presentation and publication of work. Anatomical and genomic data from these studies will be contributed to online repositories (Data Dryad and GenBank), and custom software will be made available through the lab website