NEUROBIOLOGY OF SOCIAL AFFILIATION

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The topic of research is the neurobiology of affiliation, one of the domains of social behavior. The candidate's previous clinical research has provided empirical support for the use of diminished social affiliative behaviors as a marker for the primary, enduring negative symptoms, or deficit syndrome, of schizophrenia. The fundamental neurobiology of social attachment and asociality has potential relevance to the asociality of schizophrenia, and is of great importance to other mental illnesses. Understanding the basic neurobiology of affiliation and asociality could lead to the rational development of pharmacological treatments. Training will consist of formal course work, directed readings, and supervised research. The research will concern the neural basis of social affiliative behaviors in the highly social rodent, Microtus ochrogaster. Site-specific lesions of the nuclear groups of the amygdala will be used to begin investigation of this circuit.