The Anterior Cingulate Cortex's Role in Normal Socioemotional Behavior

描述(申请人提供)：阐明社会情绪大脑的组成部分，并了解它们对物种典型行为产生的贡献，对于理解和开发针对一系列心理健康和发育障碍的有效治疗方法是密切相关的。这项拟议的工作调查了大脑结构前扣带回(ACC)在正常社会和情绪行为中的作用(具体目标1)。在人类和非人类动物中，ACC参与了广泛的社会和情绪处理。在老鼠和猴子身上进行的损伤研究通常使用破坏性的ACC损伤，然后在受限的非自然主义的社会和情绪处理任务中测试动物。这些方法存在一些问题，在拟议的项目中具体解决了这些问题，方法是使用不含纤维的鹅掌酸损伤，并在半自然的社会和情感任务环境中测试动物。一组成年恒河猴将接受双侧前扣带回鹅掌酸损伤或假手术。动物将完成一系列半自然主义的社会和情绪处理任务，在此期间，它们自发产生的行为的频率和持续时间将使用强大的行为伦理图进行捕捉。拟议工作的第二个目标是将由ACC损伤导致的社会和情绪过程中的缺陷与其他ACC相关功能的缺陷联系起来：处理竞争或冲突的刺激(特定目标2)和产生生理反应(特定目标3)。人们普遍认为，ACC处理相互竞争的刺激输入，以便执行连贯的行为反应；这一功能可能对正常的社会行为至关重要(例如，处理复杂社会群体中的从属和攻击性信号)。ACC还被认为参与产生和调节外周生理反应，如心率和呼吸的变化；这一功能可能对正常的情绪行为(例如，体验生理上唤起的情绪状态，如恐惧或焦虑)至关重要。根据特定的目标1，实验动物将完成两项任务，以解决特定的目标2和3。首先，动物将完成一项认知任务，在此过程中，必须解决相互竞争的感觉输入，以执行正确的行为反应。其次，动物将完成一项任务，在观看社会情感挑衅性视频的同时测量它们的外周生理。受损者和对照动物在这些任务中的表现将被比较，并作为分析社会和情绪行为的变量(来自与特定目标1相关的任务)。 公共卫生相关性：诊断和治疗精神健康障碍(如焦虑、抑郁)和社会处理障碍(如自闭症、社交恐惧症)需要对“社会情绪大脑”有清楚的了解。社会情绪大脑由几个大脑结构和神经系统组成，这些结构和神经系统允许社会和情绪信息被感知、进一步处理，并最终用于产生正常行为。这项拟议的工作调查了大脑前扣带回皮质在恒河猴社会情绪行为产生和调节中的作用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Elucidating the components of the socioemotional brain and understanding their contribution to the generation of species typical behavior is germane to understanding and developing effective treatments for a host of mental health and developmental disorders. The proposed work investigates the role of one brain structure, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), in normal social and emotional behavior (Specific Aim 1). The ACC has been implicated in a wide array of social and emotional processing in humans and nonhuman animals. Lesion studies in rats and monkeys typically use destructive lesions of the ACC and then test animals in constrained non-naturalistic tasks of social and emotional processing. There are a number of issues with these approaches that are specifically addressed in the proposed projects by using fiber-sparing ibotenic acid lesions and testing animals in semi-naturalistic social and emotional task environments. A cohort of adult rhesus macaques will receive either bilateral, ibotenic acid lesions of the anterior cingulate cortex or sham operations. Animals will complete a battery of semi-naturalistic social and emotional processing tasks during which the frequency and duration of their spontaneously generated behaviors will be captured using a robust behavioral ethogram. A secondary goal of the proposed work is to relate deficiencies in social and emotional process resulting from ACC damage to deficiencies in other ACC-related functions: processing competing or conflicting stimuli (Specific Aim 2) and generating physiological responses (Specific Aim 3). The ACC is widely thought to process competing stimulus inputs in order to execute coherent behavioral responses; this function is likely critical for normal social behavior (e.g., processing affiliative and aggressive signals within a complex social group). The ACC is also thought to be involved in generating and regulating peripheral physiological responses such as changes in heart rate and respiration; this function is likely critical for normal emotional behavior (e.g., experiencing emotional states that are physiologically arousing such as fear or anxiety). Following Specific Aim 1, experimental animals will complete two tasks to address Specific Aims 2 and 3. First, animals will complete a cognitive task during which competing sensory inputs must be resolved to execute the correct behavioral response. Second, animals will complete a task in which they watch socioemotionally provocative videos while their peripheral physiology is measured. Lesioned and control animals' performance on these tasks will be compared and also used as a variable in analyses of social and emotional behavior (from tasks related to Specific Aim 1). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression) and social processing disorders (e.g., autism, social phobia) require a clear understanding of "the socioemotional brain". The socioemotional brain is made up of several brain structures and neural systems that allow social and emotional information to be perceived, further processed, and ultimately used to produce normal behavior. The proposed work investigates the role of one brain region, the anterior cingulate cortex, in the production and regulation of socioemotional behavior in rhesus monkeys.