Vasopressin Effects on Emotional Social Communication

描述（由申请人提供）：精氨酸加压素（AVP）和相关肽对脊椎动物的社会行为有深远的影响，特别是对个体之间的情感攻击和附属互动。虽然我们最近的研究表明，AVP可以促进男性对同性社会刺激的反社会反应和女性对同性社会刺激的从属反应，但我们还不知道是否存在促进两性不同社会反应的两性二态AVP回路，或者更确切地说，AVP的反社会和从属效应取决于社会背景，特别是社会刺激是男性还是女性。因此，本应用程序的第一个目的是测量鼻内AVP对男性和女性对同性和其他性别面孔的情绪反应的影响，看看AVP是否对男性产生反社会效应，对女性产生从属效应，或者AVP是否一致地促进男性的反社会反应和女性的从属反应。这将通过测量AVP对与愤怒和威胁相关的身体反应（上睑肌收缩）和与关联（控制微笑的大颧肌收缩）的影响来完成，当受试者看到同性和异性个体的面孔时，通过测量AVP对这些面孔的感知反应的影响，特别是对友好/可接近性的评价。我们还将确定这些效应的剂量反应性，并确定AVP的反社会和/或附属效应的大小是否取决于背景基因型，特别是AVP V1a受体基因多态性RS3启动子区域的等位基因变异。最后，我们将确定大脑中对这些社会刺激的反应随AVP的作用而变化的区域。总之，这些研究将阐明AVP对人类情感社会交流影响的背景和性别特异性，以及与这些影响相关的分子和神经解剖学机制。最终，这些研究不仅将增加我们对与人类正常社会/情绪调节相关的神经化学机制的理解，而且还将加深我们对这些系统中的一个功能障碍如何导致以社会/情绪障碍为特征的疾病的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Arginine vasopressin (AVP) and related peptides have profound influences on social behaviors in vertebrates, particularly on emotional aggressive and affiliative interactions between individuals. Although we have recently shown that AVP can promote antisocial responses towards same-sex social stimuli in men and affiliative responses towards same-sex social stimuli in women, we do not yet know if there are sexually dimorphic AVP circuits that promote different social responses in the sexes, or rather if AVP's antisocial and affiliative effects depend on social context, specifically whether the social stimulus is male or female. The first aim of this application is therefore to measure the effects of intranasal AVP on emotional responses to same and other sex faces in men and women to see if AVP produces antisocial effects towards males and affiliative effects towards females, or rather if AVP uniformly promotes antisocial responses in males and affiliative responses in females. This will be done by measuring the effects of AVP on somatic responses associated with anger and threat (contractions of the corrugator supercilii) and with affiliation (contractions of the zygomaticus major, which control smiling) when subjects view the faces of same and other sex individuals, and by measuring the effects of AVP on perceptual responses to those faces, particularly on ratings of friendliness / approachability. We will also determine the dose-responsiveness for these effects, and determine if the magnitude of AVP's antisocial and/or affiliative effects depend on background genotype, particularly on allelic variations in the polymorphic RS3 promoter region of the AVP V1a receptor gene. Finally, we will identify regions in the brain where responses to those social stimuli change as a function of AVP administration. Together, these studies will elucidate the context and gender specificity of AVP's effects on emotional social communication in humans, as well as the molecular and neuroanatomical mechanisms associated with those effects. Ultimately, these studies will not only increase our understanding of the neurochemical mechanisms associated with normal social / emotional regulation in humans, but also our understanding of how dysfunctions within one of those systems may contribute to disorders characterized by social / emotional disturbances. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: By determining if arginine vasopressin (AVP) can influence emotional social communication in men and women, particularly if it promotes antisocial and/or affiliative responses to social stimuli in men and women, the studies associated with this application will ultimately help us better understand and treat individuals with disorders that affect emotional social regulation, most notably those with autism and/or antisocial personality disorder. In fact, these studies could ultimately help develop pharmacological and/or genetic therapies that could help alleviate some of the otherwise intractable symptoms associated with these disorders.