CAREER: Social tolerance and the neurobiology of group living

职业：社会宽容和群体生活的神经生物学

• 批准号: 2239635
• 负责人: Annaliese Beery
• 金额: $ 115万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2028-02-29
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2239635&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Social; tolerance; neurobiology; group

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.

为什么有些人聚在一起生活在群体中，而另一些人是孤独的？这个项目调查了促进社会群体形成的行为的大脑基础。草地田鼠为研究支持社会群体的机制提供了一个理想的机会，因为它们在野外会根据季节在独居和群体之间自然地过渡。在夏天，草地田鼠保持各自的领地，而在冬天，它们聚集在一起形成公共筑巢群。这个研究项目的目标是了解神经系统如何改变以支持这种向社会性的转变。通过在实验室中模拟夏天和冬天的白天长度，研究人员可以推动草地田鼠社会行为的变化。这些行为上的改变伴随着与压力、恐惧和从属关系有关的信号通路的生理变化。这个职业奖关注的是，随着社会行为而变化的路径如何参与塑造社会行为的不同方面，包括回避不熟悉的个体，社会兴趣和宽容，以及对特定伴侣的偏好。提出的研究跨越分析的层次——将分子、大脑和行为联系起来，揭示形成社会群体倾向的神经机制。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大量的培训机会，并将导致新的本科研究课程的发展，使学生参与探究驱动的学习。对于群居物种来说，同伴之间的社会互动是群体结构的基础，群体成员之间的关系通常是在非繁殖伙伴之间形成的。这些关系可以得到亲社会因素的支持，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。本项目将验证草地田鼠的冬季社会性是通过放松包括领土和恐惧在内的反社会因素来促进的，从而促进社会宽容。有针对性的药理学和病毒操作将用于研究季节性变化在与社会恐惧和觉醒相关的三种途径中的功能作用。具体来说，这些包括(1)催产素受体信号的季节性变化在调节社会选择性和与新个体的互动中的作用；(2)特定脑区促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子信号在日长介导下的变化如何影响社会行为；(3)季节变化对自主神经系统的调节作用。了解草地田鼠社会分组的神经原因和后果，将对非生殖关系是如何介导的产生根本性的见解。补充教育计划侧重于实验室和课堂上的本科生研究训练。这些活动将利用本提案中产生的数据集，并吸引学生研究草地田鼠的行为和生理变化。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。

项目成果

Why and How to Account for Sex and Gender in Brain and Behavioral Research.

为什么以及如何在大脑和行为研究中考虑性和性别。

• DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0020-23.2023
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
• 作者: Eliot,Lise;Beery,AnnalieseK;Jacobs,EmilyG;LeBlanc,HannahF;Maney,DonnaL;McCarthy,MargaretM
• 通讯作者: McCarthy,MargaretM