Dynamic hypothalamic facilitation of group cohesion

有些动物生活在大的社区，其中大部分是与它们无关的个体。在这些情况下，动物每天都会在各种社交环境中与不相关的个体（例如朋友，熟人或陌生人）进行互动。与未能在群体生活中取得巨大成功的反社会个人相比，成功应对群体生活的个人被认为是亲社会的。尽管成功的群体社会互动很重要，但人们对大脑如何促进亲社会行为以允许个体进入新的社会群体并保持群体凝聚力知之甚少。这些问题的答案仍然是未知的，因为大多数神经科学研究只研究两个个体之间的社会行为，这两个个体要么是相关的（例如父母-子女），要么是配偶。然而，对于大多数动物来说，社会互动往往发生在复杂的环境中。该项目使用了一种独特的动物模型，多刺小鼠，它生活在由相关和不相关个体组成的大型混合性别群体中。这项研究将确定大脑如何促进与新群体的接触，促进与新群体成员的积极互动，并加强使群体稳定的积极行为。从这项研究中获得的见解将是研究大脑如何促进复杂社会环境的成功导航以及个人如何能够在群体中茁壮成长，保持健康的关系，从而建立稳定的社区的基础。这些研究还将纳入外展计划，在科学节上与儿童和成人合作，并开发一个名为“天黑后”的新外展计划，这将是一个以博物馆为基础的计划，突出了群体生活的动物。大脑可以组织适应性行为反应，以适应复杂的社会环境，但我们对这是如何实现的知之甚少，特别是当社会环境是由许多相互作用的个体组成的复杂社会时。事实上，在社会神经科学领域，大多数研究都是探索二元互动背后的神经回路。因此，我们对大脑如何在群体环境中调节行为知之甚少。为了应对不断变化的社会环境，中央大脑的“枢纽”可能是必要的，以组织系统的反应，动态输入。下丘脑室旁核（PVN）是一个多功能的区域，调节生理过程和行为，从依恋和父母照顾到攻击和焦虑。虽然我们知道PVN可以产生许多输出，但PVN作用于产生它们的下游目标却不太清楚。该项目将测试以下假设：下丘脑抑制恐惧神经回路促进不分青红皂白的社会接近行为，以允许新群体的形成，以及下丘脑促进奖励回路介导的行为加强复杂社会环境中的联系，以促进群体凝聚力。研究人员将使用化学和功能遗传学方法，沿着一种新的生物体--高度社会化的多刺小鼠--来识别促进复杂群体社会凝聚力的神经回路。DREADDs和纤维光度学将与机器学习和复杂群体的社交网络分析相结合，产生神经行为数据集，深入了解使群体生活成为可能的大脑机制。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。

Some animals live in large communities comprised mostly of individuals that are not related to them. In these cases, animals will interact daily with unrelated individuals (e.g. friends, acquaintances, or strangers) across various social settings. Individuals that successfully navigate group living are considered prosocial compared to antisocial individuals that do not navigate group living with great success. Despite the importance of successful group social interaction, little is known about how the brain promotes prosocial behavior to allow individuals to enter a new social group and maintain group cohesion. The answers to these questions remain unknown because most neuroscience studies examine social behaviors between just two individuals that are either related (e.g. parent-offspring) or mates. For most animals, however, social interactions often occur in complex settings. This project uses a unique animal model, the spiny mouse, which lives in large mixed-sex groups comprised of related and unrelated individuals. This research will determine how the brain promotes initiation of contact with a new group, facilitates positive interactions with new groups members, and reinforces positive behaviors that enable group stability. Insights gained from this research will be foundational for examining how the brain promotes successful navigation of complex social environments and how individuals are able to thrive in groups, maintaining healthy relationships leading to stable communities. The studies will also incorporate outreach programs to work with children and adults at science festivals and develop a new outreach program called "After Dark" which will be a museum-based program that highlights group living animals.The brain can organize adaptive behavioral responses to complex social environments, yet we know little about how this is achieved, particularly when the social environment is a complex society of numerous interacting individuals. Indeed, within the realm of social neuroscience, most studies probe neural circuits underlying dyadic interactions. As a result, we know very little about how the brain modulates behavior in group contexts. To respond to an ever-changing social environment, central brain “hubs” are likely necessary for organizing systematic responses to dynamic inputs. The paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) is a multifunctional region that modulates physiological processes and behaviors that range from affiliation and parental care to aggression and anxiety. Although we know the PVN can produce numerous outputs, the downstream targets that the PVN acts on to produce them is less well understood. This project will test the hypothesis that hypothalamic suppression of fear neural circuitry facilitates indiscriminate social approach behavior to allow for the formation of new groups, and that hypothalamic promotion of reward circuit-mediated behavior reinforces affiliation in complex social environments to facilitate group cohesion. The researchers will use chemo- and functional-genetic approaches, along with a novel organism – the highly social spiny mouse – to identify neural circuits that promote social cohesion in complex groups. DREADDs and fiber photometry will be paired with machine learning and social network analysis of complex groups that will produce a neurobehavioral dataset that will provide insight into the brain mechanisms that make group living possible.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.