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

2021 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：多巴胺对护理人员认知和归属感的调节

• 批准号: 2109376
• 负责人: Julie Butler
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Butler, Julie M
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2109376&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

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.

这一行动为NSF 2021财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。婴儿依赖照顾者满足他们的基本需求，照顾者与婴儿之间的关系对健康和福祉具有终生影响。尽管如此，关于这种联系是如何在最年轻的社会成员身上发展起来的，人们知之甚少。通过模拟毒蛙和它们的蝌蚪，这项工作将研究蝌蚪如何识别照顾者并交流他们的需求。模仿毒蛙的蝌蚪向父母乞讨食物，但向错误的个体乞讨会耗费大量精力，并可能增加被捕食的风险。多巴胺是大脑中的一种化学物质，它发出奖励或善意的信号，比如个人或行动。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，目标是确定大脑中允许照顾者识别和联系的路径。该项目将提供一些关于新生儿大脑在社交互动中如何运作的初步证据，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在一生中与他人沟通和互动的方式。这个项目将为控制新生儿大脑中照顾者识别的生物学规则提供宝贵的见解。利用药理学和多巴胺信号的遗传操作，这位研究员将检验这样一个假设，即增加的多巴胺信号有助于照顾者的识别和联系，从而导致更多的从属乞讨行为。接下来，这项工作将使用化学遗传学来操纵副运动神经核内运动神经元的活动，以从功能上测试它们在乞讨行为输出中的作用。因为嗅觉线索是照顾者识别的基础，神经追踪技术将被用来映射嗅球、多巴胺能神经元和运动神经元之间的电路。这位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、拨款和数据管理方面获得专业发展。作为该项目的一部分，这位研究员将在他们的研究基础上大致创建一本儿童书籍，包括对照顾者的蝌蚪识别。通过该奖学金获得的技术和专业发展经验将使该研究员能够成功地过渡到作为独立首席研究员的学术生涯。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。