From Social Networks to Neural Networks: Investigating the Neural Basis of Real-Life Social Relationships

项目总结 社会关系在拥有社交网络的个人之间发展。调解社会问题的困难 与其他人的关系与严重的精神障碍密切相关，包括 抑郁、慢性压力、自闭症等。因此，理解社会的神经基础 关系是至高无上的。为了获得对现实生活行为的洞察，我建议研究 神经系统在现实生活条件下，人类和动物之间通常会发生社会互动。在……里面 特别是，我关注的是社交互动通常涉及多个参与者的事实，使用 一种灵活的通信信号曲目，发生在具有不同社会纽带和 个性特征。此外，社会关系随着时间的延长以一种动态的方式发展。 在这项建议中，我们将重点放在前扣带回皮质(ACC)。我们这样做是因为这一地区的活动 以前与广泛的哺乳动物物种的社会行为密切相关， 包括人类。然而，关于ACC中的神经计算，我们所知的要少得多 社会关系，特别是在现实生活和多层面的社会条件下。为此，我们使用 埃及果蝠，一种高度社会化、长寿的哺乳动物，习惯于群体生活和个体生活 参与一段持续数月或数年的关系。我们进一步发展高级行为 使我们能够持续监测群体内个体的社会互动的测量方法 并描述他们在群体成员之间的社会关系。研究构成其基础的神经回路 社会关系我们开发无线神经生理学工具，使我们能够从 整个蝙蝠群体同时以细胞和毫秒级的分辨率(电生理学)和超过 时间过长(钙质成像)。这种新颖的方法使我们能够考虑到 现实生活中的社会互动，并考虑到个体之间的社会纽带，动态的结构 社会关系以及个性特征上的个体差异。具体地说，我们的目标是实现 以下目标：(1)我们首先描述了在半自然的，二分的， 社会互动和交流。(2)接下来描述相互作用过程中的ACC神经动力学 在现实生活中稳定的社交网络中发生，同时考虑个人之间的关系(3)我们 描述与现实社会中发生的动态变化并行的ACC神经动态演变 网络。(4)我们使用光遗传学工具在群体社会互动过程中扰乱了ACC的神经活动 以评估它在现实生活中与其他人的社会关系中的因果作用。加在一起，这些 实验将详细描述以社会中介为基础的ACC神经计算 社交网络中的关系。在这样做的过程中，我们希望这些结果能够提供重要的见解， 可用于未来患者的临床应用。

PROJECT SUMMARY Social relationships develop between individuals with a social network. Difficulties in mediating social relationships with other individuals is strongly associated with severe mental disorders ranging from depression, chronic stress, autism and other. Thus, understanding the neural underpinning of social relationships is paramount. To gain insight that would inform of real-life behavior, I propose to study the nervous system under real-life conditions in which social interactions in humans and animals typically occur. In particular, I focus on the fact that social interactions typically involve multiple participants, employ the usage of a flexible repertoire of communication signals, and occur between individuals of varying social bonds and personality traits. Furthermore, social relationships evolve over prolonged periods of time in a dynamic fashion. In this proposal we focus on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We do so because activity in this area has previously been strongly associated with social behaviors across a wide range of mammalian species, including humans. However, much less is known about the neural computations in the ACC with respect to social relationships, especially during real-life and multi-dimensional social conditions. To do so, we use the Egyptian fruit bat, a highly social, long-lived mammal that is accustom to group living and where individuals engage in relationships that extend over many months/years. We further develop advanced behavioral measurements that allow us to monitor the social interactions of individuals within our colonies continuously and characterize their social relationships between group members. To study the neural circuits that underlie social relationships we develop wireless neurophysiological tools that enable monitoring neural activity from entire colonies of bats simultaneously at cellular and millisecond resolutions (electrophysiology) and over prolonged periods of time (calcium imaging). This novel approach allows us to consider the true complexity of real-life social interactions and consider the social bonds between the individuals, the dynamic structure of the social relationships as well as the individual variability in personality traits. Specifically, we aim to achieve the following aims: (1) We start by describing the basic neural dynamics in the ACC during semi-natural, dyadic, social interactions and communication. (2) We next describe the ACC neural dynamics during interaction occurring within real-life, stable, social networks while considering the relationships between individuals (3) We describe the evolution of ACC neural dynamic in parallel to the dynamical changes that occur in real-life social networks. (4) We use optogenetics tools to disrupt neural activity in the ACC during group social interactions in order to assess its causal role in real-life social relationships with other individuals. Combined, these experiments will provide a detailed description of ACC neural computations underlying the mediation of social relationships within a social network. In doing so, we aim for these results to provide important insight that could be used in clinical future application in patients.