Sex Differences in the Social Brain

项目总结 在大多数哺乳动物物种中，同一物种个体之间的社会互动受 支配关系。这些等级关系是由激进性建立和维护的 行为，包括攻击性。重要的是，最近的数据表明潜在的神经机制 攻击性和获得支配性会产生一种抵抗社会压力的表型，而 从属地位的潜在机制产生了一种社会压力敏感的表型，这可能导致 一系列不良的行为和生理后果。尽管社会地位之间的关系 而压力，支配优势的神经化学机制只得到了有限的关注 雄性几乎没有注意到雌性。这个项目将通过测试和测试来填补我们知识中的这一关键空白 综合使用叙利亚仓鼠和恒河猴的一系列假设。该项目将严格测试 最重要的假设是，争斗行为负责形成和维持 加压素(AVP)和5-羟色胺(5-羟色胺)以截然不同的方式调节优势关系。 在男性和女性中)。具体地说，我们认为AVP的激活和5-HT的抑制促进了 雄性在产生从属地位和应激时的显性地位和抗逆性表型 女性易感表型。相反，抑制AVP和激活5-羟色胺则促进 雌性在产生从属地位和应激时的显性和抗逆性表型 男性易感表型。综合起来，这些数据将极大地扩展我们对性的了解 定义社会表型的神经化学机制的差异将提供创新的 促进抵抗社会压力的针对性别的战略。在这个项目中获得的数据可以 通过指导男性和女性的减压药物治疗，几乎立即产生临床效果 以及通过强调AVP靶向药物在男性和5-羟色胺中的作用来指导药物开发 女性体内的靶向药物。

PROJECT SUMMARY In most mammalian species, social interactions among individuals of the same species are governed by dominance relationships. These hierarchical relationships are established and maintained by agonistic behaviors, including aggression. Importantly, recent data indicate that the neural mechanisms underlying aggression and attaining dominance produce a phenotype that is resistant to social stress while the mechanisms underlying subordinate status produce a social stress-susceptible phenotype that may result in a number of adverse behavioral and physiological outcomes. Despite the relationship between social status and stress, the neurochemical mechanisms that underlie dominance have received only limited attention in males and almost no attention in females. This project will fill this critical gap in our knowledge by testing an integrated series of hypotheses using Syrian hamsters and rhesus monkeys. This project will critically test the overarching hypothesis that the agonistic behaviors responsible for the formation and maintenance of dominance relationships are regulated in dramatically different ways by vasopressin (AVP) and serotonin (5- HT) in males and females. Specifically, we propose that activation of AVP and inhibition of 5-HT promotes dominant status and a stress resistant phenotype in MALES while producing subordinate status and a stress susceptible phenotype in FEMALES. In contrast, inhibition of AVP and activation of 5-HT promotes dominance and a stress resistant phenotype in FEMALES while producing subordinate status and a stress susceptible phenotype in MALES. Together, these data will significantly expand our knowledge of sex differences in the neurochemical mechanisms that define social phenotypes and will provide innovative gender specific strategies for promoting resistance to social stress. The data obtained in this project could have an almost immediate clinical impact by guiding drug treatments for stress reduction in men and women as well as guiding drug development by emphasizing the role of AVP-targeted drugs in males and 5-HT- targeted drugs in females.