Disentangling mechanisms of sociality and mating tactics

在脊椎动物中，雄性使用多种策略来获得生殖雌性，这些策略可能与社会性的变化有关。例如，与一个女性形成高度选择性配对关系的男性可能不太社会化，而高度社会化的男性可能会表达另一种交配策略，尽管被束缚，但他们会与许多女性进行求爱和交配。该项目提出，要理解一些雄性动物中出现的新的、独特的交配策略，就需要理解高社交性（称为亲社会行为）和导致配对的选择性社会行为背后的大脑行为关系的相互作用。通过探索这两种社会行为的大脑-行为关系，该项目旨在了解只能通过间接探索社会大脑中其他行为的神经来源来研究的行为的神经来源。在这种情况下，要理解男性对伴侣的忠诚，就需要理解社交能力变化的神经基础。这个项目探索了一个新的想法，即一些社会行为间接植根于神经回路，这些神经回路具有独特但相似的功能。这些研究的目的代表了对社会大脑功能的思考的转变。在此过程中，我们将对本科生进行神经科学先进技术的培训，并正式培训他们与服务不足的小学学龄儿童（主要是难民）进行科学外展。社会性和交配系统是相互依赖的行为类别，支配着生殖决策的不同要素。本计画将厘清一般性与选择性亲社会行为的累积效应，以研究替代性生殖策略的变异。假设是高社交性通过社交途径创造了性不忠的机会。侧隔（LS）是高度网络化的，影响社会性和交配系统。重点放在草原田鼠，社会一夫一妻制的物种，配对的男性在性忠诚度不同，尽管保持强大的配对债券。一个关键的预测是，社会滥交（即，非特异性社会途径）由终纹内侧床核（BSTm）和LS之间的连接门控。高社会性应该为动物创造机会，参与额外的对求爱和交配独立的债券强度。该项目将确定：[1] BSTm-LS神经元活动在使用retro-Cre化学遗传神经操作调节社会一夫一妻制中的作用，[2] LS中的加压素和GABA如何使用药理学操作和可视化神经活动调节社会方法和性不忠，以及[3]如果LS神经激活通过化学遗传学影响复杂社会背景下的社会方法和交配决定。这项研究将利用亲社会性和一夫一妻制之间的交叉点，通过操纵一个社会行为领域的神经元功能来观察另一个领域（生殖决策）的后果，从而扩大对社会大脑功能的理解。该项目将利用URM学生在神经行为学先进方法的各级培训的良好记录，以及在社区课堂环境中与服务不足和边缘化的K-12岁儿童的社区参与。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。

Public Award AbstractAcross vertebrates, males use a diversity of tactics to gain access to reproductive females, and these tactics may be associated with variation in sociability. For example, males that form highly selective pair bonds with one female might be less generally social whereas males that are highly social may express an alternative mating tactic, where they court and mate promiscuously with many females despite being bonded. This project proposes that understanding new and distinct mating tactics that emerge in some males requires understanding the interaction of brain-behavior relationships that underlie high sociability (known as prosocial behavior) and selective social behavior that leads to pairbonding. By exploring brain-behavior relationships of these two social behaviors, the project aims to understand the neural sources for behaviors that can only be studied by indirectly exploring the neural sources of other behaviors within the social brain. In this case, understanding male fidelity to a pairbonded partner requires understanding the neural basis of variation in sociability. This project explores the novel idea that some social behaviors are indirectly rooted in neural circuitry that serves a distinct but similar function. The aims of these studies represent a shift in thinking about the function of the social brain. In doing so, we will train undergraduate students in advanced techniques in neuroscience, and formally train them to engage in science outreach with a population of underserved (mostly refugee) elementary school-aged children. Technical abstractSociality and mating systems are interdependent classes of behavior that govern distinct elements of reproductive decision-making. This project will disentangle the aggregated effects of general and selective prosocial behavior to study variation in alternative reproductive tactics. The hypothesis is high sociability creates opportunities for sexual infidelity via social access. The lateral septum (LS) is highly networked and impacts both sociability and mating system. Focus is placed on prairie voles, a socially monogamous species where pairbonded males vary in sexual fidelity, in spite of maintaining strong pairbonds. A key prediction is that social promiscuity (i.e., non-specific social approach) is gated by the connections between the medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTm) and the LS. High sociability should create opportunities for animals to engage in extra-pair courtship and copulation independent of bond strength. The project will determine: [1] the role of BSTm-LS neuronal activity in regulating social monogamy using retro-Cre chemogenetic neural manipulations, [2] how vasopressin and GABA in the LS modulate social approach and sexual infidelity using pharmacological manipulation and visualizing neural activity, and [3] if LS neural activation via chemogenetics affects social approach and mating decisions in a complex social context. This research will exploit the intersection between prosociality and monogamy to broaden understanding of social brain function by manipulating neuronal function in one domain of social behavior to observe the consequences in another (reproductive decision-making). The project will leverage a strong record of training URM students at all levels in advanced methods in neuroethology, and community engagement with underserved and marginalized K-12 aged children in a community classroom environment.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.