NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Dopamine Modulation of Caregiver Recognition and Affiliation

该行动资助2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。婴儿依靠照顾者满足其基本需求，照顾者与婴儿之间的纽带对健康和福祉产生终身影响。尽管如此，人们对这种联系在社会中最年轻的成员中是如何发展的知之甚少。利用拟态毒蛙和它们的蝌蚪，这项工作将研究蝌蚪如何识别照顾者并传达它们的需求。拟毒蛙蝌蚪向它们的父母乞求食物，但是向错误的个体乞求会消耗大量的能量，而且会增加被捕食的风险。多巴胺是大脑中的一种化学物质，它表示对个人或行为等事物的奖励或善意。这项工作将研究多巴胺在蝌蚪与潜在照顾者互动中的作用，目的是确定大脑中允许照顾者识别和联系的途径。该项目将提供一些关于新生儿大脑在社会互动中如何运作的第一手证据，特别是关注与照顾者的关键早期互动，这些互动可以塑造一个人一生中如何与他人沟通和互动。这个项目将提供宝贵的见解，以生物学规则管理照顾者识别在新生儿的大脑。利用多巴胺信号的药理学和基因操作，研究员将测试多巴胺信号增加促进照顾者的识别和联系，导致增加的附属乞讨行为的假设。接下来，本研究将利用化学遗传学技术来操纵副运动核中的运动神经元的活动，以功能测试它们在乞讨行为输出中的作用。由于嗅觉线索是识别照顾者的基础，神经追踪技术将用于绘制嗅球、多巴胺能神经元和运动神经元之间的电路。该研究员将通过斯坦福大学博士后事务办公室提供的实验室活动和课程，在指导、教学、拨款写作和数据管理方面获得专业发展。作为该项目的一部分，研究员将根据他们的研究创作一本儿童读物，其中包括蝌蚪对看护人的识别。通过该奖学金获得的技术和专业发展经验将使研究员成功过渡到作为独立首席研究员的学术生涯。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Infants rely on their caregivers for their basic needs, with caregiver-infant bonds having lifelong impacts on health and wellbeing. Despite this, little is known about how this bond develops in the youngest members of society. Using Mimetic poison frogs and their tadpoles, this work will study how tadpoles recognize caregivers and communicate their needs. Mimetic poison frog tadpoles beg for food from their parents, but begging to the wrong individual is energetically costly and can increase the risk of predation. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that signals reward, or goodness, of something like an individual or action. This work will study the role of dopamine in tadpole interactions with potential caregivers, with the goal of identifying a pathway in the brain that allows for caregiver recognition and bonding. The project will provide some of the first evidence of how the neonate brain functions during social interactions, specifically focusing on the crucial early interactions with caregivers that can shape how an individual communicates and interacts with others throughout their life. This project will provide invaluable insights into the biological rules governing caregiver recognition in the neonate brain. Using pharmacology and genetic manipulations of dopamine signaling, the fellow will test the hypothesis that increased dopamine signaling facilitates caregiver recognition and bonding, leading to increased affiliative begging behaviors. Next, this work will use chemogenetics to manipulate activity of motor neurons in the accessory motor nucleus to functionally test their role in begging behavior output. Because olfactory cues underlie caregiver recognition, neural tracing techniques will be used to map the circuitry between the olfactory bulbs, dopaminergic neurons, and motor neurons. The fellow will gain professional development in mentoring, teaching, grant-writing, and data management through lab activities and courses offered through Stanford’s Office of Postdoc Affairs. As part of this project, the fellow will create a children’s book loosely based on their research, including tadpole recognition of caregivers. Technical and professional development experiences through this fellowship will allow the fellow to successfully transition into an academic career as an independent principal investigator.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.