CAREER: Social tolerance and the neurobiology of group living

为什么有些人会聚集在一起生活，而另一些人则是孤独的？该项目研究促进社会群体形成的行为的大脑基础。草甸田鼠提供了一个理想的机会，研究机制，支持社会群体，因为他们自然过渡之间的孤独和殖民地在野外，这取决于季节。在夏季，草原田鼠保持各自的领地，而在冬季，它们聚集在一起，形成共同的筑巢群体。这项研究计划的目标是了解神经系统如何改变以支持这种向社会性的过渡。通过在实验室中模拟夏季和冬季白天的长度，研究人员可以改变草地田鼠的社会行为。这些行为变化伴随着压力、恐惧和归属感信号通路的生理变化。这个职业生涯奖的重点是如何与社会行为一起改变的途径参与塑造社会行为的不同方面，包括避免不熟悉的人，社会兴趣和宽容，以及对特定同伴的偏好。这项研究跨越了分子、大脑和行为的分析层次，揭示了形成社会群体的神经机制。这些研究活动与教育目标相结合，将为本科生和研究生提供众多的培训机会，并将导致开发一个新的本科研究课程，让学生参与探究式学习。对于生活在群体中的物种来说，同伴的社会互动是群体结构的基础，而不是生殖伙伴的群体成员之间经常形成关系。这些关系可以由亲社会因素支持，如社会互动的动机，和/或缺乏反社会倾向，如回避，不容忍和社会恐惧。本项目将检验如下假设：草地田鼠的冬季社会性是通过放松反社会因素（包括领地和恐惧）来促进的，从而促进了社会容忍。有针对性的药理学和病毒操作将被用来研究与社会恐惧和觉醒相关的三个途径中季节性变化的功能作用。具体而言，这些包括（1）催产素受体信号传导的季节性变化在介导社会选择性和与新个体的互动中的作用;（2）特定大脑区域中促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子信号传导的日长介导的变化如何影响社会行为;（3）季节性变化在自主神经系统调节中的作用。了解草原田鼠社会群体的神经原因和后果将产生基本的见解如何非生殖关系的调解。补充教育计划的重点是在实验室和课堂本科研究培训。这些活动将利用本提案中生成的数据集，让学生参与研究草地田鼠的行为和生理变化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估，被认为值得支持。更广泛的影响审查标准。

Why do some individuals come together to live in groups while others are solitary? This project investigates the brain basis of behaviors that promote formation of social groups. Meadow voles provide an ideal opportunity to study mechanisms that support social grouping because they naturally transition between solitary and colonial in the wild, depending on the season. In summer, meadow voles maintain individual territories, while in winter they come together to form communal nesting groups. The goal of this research program is to understand how the nervous system changes to support this transition to sociality. By mimicking summer and winter day lengths in the laboratory, researchers can drive changes in meadow vole social behavior. These changes in behavior are accompanied by physiological changes in signaling pathways involved in stress, fear, and affiliation. This CAREER award focuses on how the pathways that change alongside social behavior are involved in shaping different aspects of social behavior including avoidance of unfamiliar individuals, social interest and tolerance, and preferences for specific companions. The proposed studies cross levels of analysis—connecting molecules, brain, and behavior to reveal neural mechanisms underlying the tendency to form social groups. These research activities are coupled to educational goals that will provide numerous training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and will lead to the development of a new undergraduate research course to engage students in inquiry-driven learning. For species that live in groups, peer social interactions are fundamental to group structure, and relationships regularly form between group members who are not reproductive partners. These relationships can be supported by prosocial factors such as motivation for social interaction, and/or by lack of antisocial tendencies such as avoidance, intolerance, and social fear. This project will test the hypothesis that winter sociality in meadow voles is facilitated by relaxation of antisocial factors including territoriality and fear, promoting social tolerance. Targeted pharmacological and viral manipulations will be used to investigate the functional role of seasonal changes in three pathways related to social fear and arousal. Specifically these include (1) the role of seasonal changes in oxytocin receptor signaling in mediating social selectivity and interaction with novel individuals; (2) how day length-mediated changes in corticotropin releasing factor signaling in specific brain regions influence social behavior; and (3) the role of seasonal changes in autonomic nervous system regulation. Understanding the neural causes and consequences of social grouping in meadow voles will yield fundamental insights into how non-reproductive relationships are mediated. The complementary educational plan focuses on undergraduate research training in the laboratory and classroom. These activities will make use of the data sets generated within this proposal and engage students in studying behavioral and physiological variation in meadow voles.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.