Neural Networks Supporting Social and Emotional Behavior

众所周知，社会环境会影响身心健康。拥有更多社会关系的人患病更少，康复得更快、更彻底。了解社会环境影响幸福感的机制将有助于开发新的干预措施和治疗病理学，特别是精神病。尽管越来越多的证据表明社会关系和幸福感之间存在关系，但人们对这种关系的生物学机制知之甚少。一种可能的机制是，社会环境影响大脑解剖结构，进而影响幸福感。从人类和猴子身上收集到的新证据表明，一个人拥有的社会关系越多，杏仁核和其他对情绪产生和调节至关重要的大脑区域的体积就越大。这些数据表明，社交网络的规模与大脑区域的结构和功能之间存在关系，而大脑区域对情感和健康至关重要，尽管它们仍有许多重要的问题没有得到解答。首先，是只有社会网络的规模有影响，还是个人的社会角色会影响神经解剖学？第二，一个人在发育早期的社会角色如何影响整个生命周期的神经解剖学？第三，情绪脑神经解剖学如何介导社会生活对情绪加工的影响？所提议的工作的目标就是回答这些问题。为此，我将首先使用正式的社会网络分析来描述个人的社会角色。这种分析不仅提供了个人拥有的社会关系数量的信息，而且还提供了个人在该网络中扮演的特定角色的信息。然后，个体将接受神经成像，以表征感兴趣的神经解剖区域的结构和功能连接。他们还将完成测试，以表征他们的情绪处理过程。我将首先研究社会角色是否影响脑神经解剖学和情绪处理，使用成人受试者的横断面研究（具体目标1,3）。接下来，我将使用实验纵向研究设计（Specific Aim 2,3）来研究发育早期的社会角色是否会影响神经解剖学和在关键发育时期（童年到青年成年）发展新社会关系的能力。总之，这些数据将允许评估社会角色对情绪处理的影响，通过神经解剖学介导整个生命周期。

It is well established that social context impacts physical and mental health. People with more social connections experience less illness and recover more quickly and thoroughly when they do. Understanding the mechanism by which social context influences wellbeing will allow for the development of new interventions and treatments for pathology, and in particular psychopathy. Despite accumulating evidence that illustrates a relationship between social relationships and wellbeing, little is known about the biological mechanisms that subserve that relationship. One possible mechanism is that social context influences brain anatomy which in turn influences wellbeing. New evidence collected in people and monkeys illustrates that the more social relationships an individual has, the larger the volume of the amygdala and other brain regions critically important for the generation and regulation of emotions. These data point to a relationship between social network size and the structure and function of brain areas that are important for emotion and wellbeing, although they leave a number of important questions unanswered. First, is it only social network size that matters, or does an individual¿s social role impact neuroanatomy? Second, how does an individual¿s social role early in development influence neuroanatomy across the life span? Third, how does emotional brain neuroanatomy mediate the impact of social life on emotional processing? The goal of the proposed work is to answer these questions. To that end, I will first characterize individual¿s social roles using formal social network analyses. Such analyses provide information about the number of social connections an individual has, but also about what specific role the individual plays in that network. Individuals will then undergo neuroimaging in order to characterize the structure and functional connectivity neuroanatomical regions of interest. They will also complete testing to characterize their emotional processing. I will first examine whether social role influences brain neuroanatomy and emotional processing using a cross sectional study with adult subjects (Specific Aims 1, 3). Next I will examine whether social roles early in development influence neuroanatomy and the capacity for developing new social relationships across a critical developmental period (childhood through young adulthood) using an experimental longitudinal study design (Specific Aim 2, 3). Together, these data will allow for the evaluation of the impact of social roles on emotional processing as mediated by neuroanatomy across the life-span.