Social security: The influence of social relationships on cognitive, affective, and neural aging

项目摘要 尽管在人类中积累的证据表明，情绪生活随着年龄的增长而改善，即使在这种情况下也是如此 在身体和认知健康挑战中，支持这些改善的机制很大程度上是 未知。一种可能性是，社会环境和社会关系的各个方面防止 有害的衰老效应，从而促进健康。了解社会环境之间的相互作用 而一生中认知、情感和神经行为的健康结果对发展至关重要 对遭受衰老有害影响的人进行有效干预，包括抑郁症和 寂寞。然而，为了检验因果关系而操纵人类的社会关系是不道德的 假设。为了解决这个机械问题，我们利用了人类社会的一个强大的动物模型， 认知、情感和神经行为老化--恒河猴--以评估强健的社会 环境和高质量的关系促进和保护健康的情感、认知和 神经行为老化，而社会环境的限制使其受损。此外，我们还评估 社会干预，即增加接触高质量社会伙伴的机会，是否可以改善认知， 情感和神经行为结果，一旦它们被老化过程损害。我们将限制 然后让年轻和老年猴子的社会环境恢复活力，并测量神经行为 功能(大脑结构和功能的认知、情感和神经成像测量)与此同时进行 操纵。通过这种方式，这一工作计划代表了确定机械性的关键的第一步 除了评估一种可能的干预措施外，社会环境对神经行为老化的影响 有益于经历过不健康衰老的个人。

Project Summary Although accumulating evidence in humans points to improvements in emotional life with age, even in the context of physical and cognitive health challenges, the mechanisms that support those improvements are largely unknown. One possibility is that aspects of the social environment and social relationships guard against deleterious aging effects and thus promote wellbeing. Understanding the interplay between social environment and cognitive, affective, and neurobehavioral health outcomes across the lifespan is critical for developing effective interventions for people who suffer from the deleterious effects of aging, including depression and loneliness. Nevertheless, it is not ethical to manipulate humans’ social relationships in order to test causal hypotheses. To address this mechanistic question, we capitalize on a robust animal model of human social, cognitive, affective, and neurobehavioral aging – the rhesus monkey – in order evaluate whether robust social environments and high-quality relationships promote and protect healthy affective, cognitive, and neurobehavioral aging while restrictions of the social environment compromise it. Additionally, we evaluate whether social interventions, namely increasing access to high quality social partners, may improve cognitive, affective, and neurobehavioral outcomes once they have been compromised by aging processes. We will restrict and then rejuvenate the social environment in both young and aged monkeys, and measure neurobehavioral function (cognition, affect, and neuroimaging measures of brain structure and function) concurrently with these manipulations. In this way, this program of work represents a critical first step in determining the mechanistic impact of social environment on neurobehavioral aging in addition to evaluating a potential intervention that could benefit individuals who have experienced unhealthy aging.