CAREER: Understanding the role of social contact in the organization and modulation of cognition and neuroplasticity

社会环境对大脑发育和学习有重要影响。动物是如此，人类也是如此。这项工作的总体目标是解决社会互动如何通过压力激素水平的变化来改善和损害学习和记忆。通过研究社会经验如何影响动物（这里是鸟类）的学习，我们可以了解各种社会动物（包括我们自己）的社会互动的成本和收益。这个项目对神经科学和行为学领域很重要，因为我们正在研究社会丰富对大脑功能和学习的好处。大多数先前的工作只关注社会冲突和应激激素水平升高的负面后果。这项工作与人类社会相关，因为待研究的鸟类的基本生理和大脑过程与人类相同；确定社会条件如何影响鸟类的应激激素和学习能力，将为社会互动如何影响人类健康和学习提供信息。这项在动物身上进行的实验工作将明确地确定社交丰富是否以及如何通过对应激激素的影响来提高学习能力。最后，通过让K-12教师参与暑期研究体验，并支持高中课堂的课程开发和实施，该项目将为培训和招募来自服务不足的阿巴拉契亚社区的学生进入科学领域奠定基础。社会生活被认为是为了增强认知和潜在的大脑功能而选择的，因为导航社会关系需要对社会线索和过去互动的记忆有更好的关注。尽管对进化过程在塑造认知和社会性中的作用进行了广泛的研究，但很少有研究解决了社会条件在动物一生中驱动认知表现和潜在神经可塑性变化的潜力。此外，迄今为止的大多数研究都集中在社会冲突的潜在有害影响上，而没有考虑社会互动如何支持认知和大脑功能。社会冲突可以通过糖皮质激素升高对潜在大脑机制的影响而损害认知。然而，社会接触可能通过维持糖皮质激素水平在最佳范围内以支持认知和大脑功能来提高认知表现的互惠假说尚未得到验证。本项目将采用同时操纵社会鸣禽——斑胸草雀（Poephila guttata）的社会和生理变量的实验方法，以解决个体认知差异的后果、机制和发展起源。这项工作将推动我们理解环境因素和内部调节机制之间的复杂关系。此外，探讨社会接触和潜在的糖皮质激素如何增强认知能力，使我们超越了对这种内分泌途径造成的损害的历史关注（现在已被公认为有缺陷），并建立在对压力适应性作用的更广泛理解的基础上。最后，该项目将通过让阿巴拉契亚地区服务不足的农村社区的K-12教师和高中生参与研究，支持他们的培训。

Non- Technical paragraphThe social environment has important consequences for brain development and learning. This is true for animals, just as it is for humans. The broad goal of this work is to resolve how social interactions can both improve and compromise learning and memory through changes in stress hormone levels. By studying how social experiences impact learning in animals (here, birds) we can understand the costs and benefits of social interactions in a variety of social animals, including ourselves. This project is important to the fields of neuroscience and behavior because we are studying the benefits of social enrichment on brain function and learning. Most prior work has focused only on the negative consequences of social conflict and elevated stress hormone levels. This work is relevant to human society because the basic physiological and brain processes in the bird species to be studied are shared with humans; determining how social conditions impact stress hormones and learning in birds will provide information as to how social interactions impact human health and learning. This experimental work in animals will specifically determine if and how social enrichment could improve learning through effects on stress hormones. Finally, by involving K-12 teachers in summer research experiences and supporting curriculum development and implementation in high school classrooms, this project will be a foundation for training and recruiting students from underserved Appalachian communities to the sciences.Technical paragraphSocial living is argued to select for enhanced cognition and underlying brain function, because navigating social relationships can require superior attention to social cues and memory of past interactions. Despite extensive work on the role of evolutionary processes in shaping cognition and sociality, few studies have addressed the potential for social conditions to drive changes in cognitive performance and underlying neuroplasticity during an animal's lifetime. Moreover, most studies to date have focused on the potential deleterious effects of social conflict, without considering how social interaction may support cognition and brain function. Social conflict can impair cognition through the effects of elevated glucocorticoids on underlying brain mechanisms. However, the reciprocal hypothesis, that social contact may enhance cognitive performance by maintaining glucocorticoid levels in an optimal range to support cognition and brain function, has not been tested. This project will take the experimental approach of simultaneous manipulation of both social and physiological variables in a social songbird, the zebra finch (Poephila guttata), to resolve the consequences, mechanisms, and developmental origins of individual variation in cognition. This work will move us toward understanding complex relationships among environmental factors and internal regulatory mechanisms. Further, addressing how social contact and underlying glucocorticoids may enhance cognition moves us beyond a historic focus (now well recognized as being flawed) on the impairments caused by this endocrine pathway and builds upon a broadening understanding of the adaptive role of stress. Finally, this project will support the training of K-12 teachers and high school students from underserved rural communities in Appalachia by involving them in the research.