CAREER: Social tolerance and the neurobiology of group living

为什么有的人喜欢群居，而有的人却独居？该项目研究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分组的机制提供了理想的机会，因为它们根据季节在野外自然地在独居和群居之间过渡。在夏季，草地田鼠维持各自的领地，而在冬季，它们聚集在一起形成公共筑巢群体。该研究计划的目标是了解神经系统如何变化以支持向社会性的转变。通过在实验室中模拟夏季和冬季的白天长度，研究人员可以推动草甸田鼠社会行为的变化。这些行为变化伴随着涉及压力、恐惧和归属感的信号通路的生理变化。该职业奖重点关注随着社会行为而变化的途径如何参与塑造社会行为的不同方面，包括回避不熟悉的人、社会兴趣和宽容以及对特定伴侣的偏好。拟议的研究跨层次分析——将分子、大脑和行为联系起来，揭示形成社会群体倾向背后的神经机制。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培训机会，并将导致新的本科生研究课程的开发，让学生参与探究驱动的学习。对于群体生活的物种来说，同伴社会互动是群体结构的基础，非生殖伙伴的群体成员之间经常形成关系。这些关系可以通过亲社会因素（例如社交互动的动机）和/或缺乏反社会倾向（例如回避、不容忍和社交恐惧）来支持。该项目将检验这样一个假设，即草地田鼠的冬季社交性是通过放松反社会因素（包括领地意识和恐惧）来促进的，从而促进社会宽容。将使用有针对性的药理学和病毒操作来研究季节变化在与社会恐惧和唤醒相关的三种途径中的功能作用。具体来说，这些包括（1）催产素受体信号传导的季节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)季节变化对植物神经系统调节的作用。了解草地田鼠社会分组的神经原因和后果将产生对如何调节非生殖关系的基本见解。补充教育计划侧重于实验室和课堂的本科生研究培训。这些活动将利用本提案中生成的数据集，并让学生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和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.