Ontogeny of sociality in a mouse model

描述（由申请人提供）：社会性是一种行为维度，它使生物体与其他生物，特别是同一物种的其他成员建立联系，并提供所有重要的互动，这些互动代表了群体隶属关系、配偶选择、亲代行为、信息交换和利他主义等现象。社会性存在于个人层面和群体层面，两者都有可分离但又相互关联的发展。拟议的研究旨在定义和确定小家鼠社会性的开始，小家鼠是为NIH路线图服务的主要“模型”哺乳动物。我们提出了一个研究项目，将采用观察、经验、生理、基因组和神经内分泌等方法来识别幼鼠何时首次表达社会反应，它们的社会行为如何针对其他老鼠，以及控制个体和群体行为的规则。本研究的具体目的包括：为实验小鼠C57品系建立一套代表其早期社会行为的群体和个体现象；创建关于个体和群体代谢努力的参数化基础数据，以便将接触行为的生理（特别是热）影响与非热的社会关系分离开来。在整个研究过程中，我们还将调用选定的基因工程（“敲除”）小鼠来测试有关皮肤温度感觉和中枢催产素在孝道行为形成和表达中的作用的特定假设。将分析个体发展中的社会性，特别是嗅觉偏好的发展，使个体做出特定的孝子反应。新的“嗅觉同位素”将用于发现来自与母亲和幼崽在巢穴中的特定经历的发育决定因素。这些构成了对自然经验如何在行为发展中作为学习机制的探索。最后，我们将提供C57母鼠母性行为的整体和具体测量，因为这些数据和方法是完整分析遗传和其他实验对发育的贡献所必需的，因为许多这些操作可以通过改变母性行为来操作。母体对基因改变的窝仔和个体的反应将被研究以检验这些想法。公共卫生相关性：拟议研究的重要性将首先体现在它将社会行为的客观和定量指标与基因表达和大脑内分泌过程的现代知识联系起来的贡献。小鼠模型中的这种联系将为测试多种形式的精神疾病的治疗方法提供必要的研究工具，例如自闭症谱系障碍和精神分裂症，这些疾病涉及社会过程和社会反应的根本中断。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sociality is the dimension of behavior that brings organisms into association with others, especially other members of one's species and affords all the vital interactions that represent phenomena such group affiliation, mate choice, parental behaviors, information exchange, and altruism. Sociality exists on the level of the individual and on the level of the group, and each has a separable, but interrelated development. The proposed research is designed to define and identify the onset of sociality in Mus musculus, the major "model" mammal serving the NIH Roadmap. We propose a program of research that will employ observational, experiential, physiological, genomic and neuroendrocrine approaches to recognizing when social responses are first expressed by infant mouse pups, how their social behavior becomes directed at other mice, and the rules that govern individual and group behavior. The Specific Aims of the proposed research include: establishing for the C57 strain of laboratory mouse, a set of group and individual phenomena that represent their early social behaviors; creating parametric, foundation data on metabolic effort by individuals and groups so that physiological (especially thermal) effects of contact behavior can be separated from non-thermal, social affiliations. Throughout the research, we will also invoke selected genetically-engineered ("knock out") mice to both test specific hypotheses concerning the roles of cutaneous temperature sensation and the central oxytocin in the formation and expression of filial behavior. Sociality in individual development will be analyzed, especially the development of olfactory preferences that make specific individual's filial responses. Novel "olfactory isotopes" will be used to discover the developmental determinants that derive from specific experiences in the nest with mother and littermates. These constitute probes into how natural experiences serve as learning mechanisms in behavioral development. Finally, we will provide both global and specific measures of maternal behavior in the C57 mother mouse, for these data and their methods are needed for complete analyses of genetic and other experimental contributions to development, since many of these manipulations can operate by altering in maternal behavior. Maternal responses to genomically-altered litters and individuals will be studied to test these ideas. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The importance of the proposed research will be seen first in its contribution to linking objective and quantitative metrics of social behavior to modern knowledge of gene expression and endocrine processes in the brain. This linkage in a mouse model will provide a needed research tool for testing treatments for the many forms of mental illness, such as the autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia, that involve fundamental disruptions in social processes and social responses.