Influences of paternal and maternal care on offspring social cognition

描述(由申请人提供)：本研究项目的长期目标是了解早期附属经历对双亲哺乳动物社会行为的影响。我们将研究“破碎的家庭”对神经生物学和行为的影响，这些家庭的父亲不在身边，或者母亲会影响孩子对食物的照顾。亲子互动为孩子的发展提供了主要的社会经验，并可能产生终生影响，塑造社会决策。人类是双亲。不幸的是，我们所知道的关于行为发育的大部分知识来自于其社会组织与我们自己显著不同的物种。荷尔蒙催产素(OT)和加压素(VP)与社会行为的控制有着千丝万缕的联系，特别是众所周知，它们对父母的照顾和亲子关系的影响。我们最近的工作表明，父亲会影响后代和成人的社交互动，而出生后的环境会影响发育中的大脑中OT和VP受体的表达。因此，社会行为的个体发育变化可能根源于社会大脑的同步变化。我们的假设是：操纵双亲照料将产生具有不同社会和认知能力的后代，这将与催产素和加压素能基因表达的生理差异有关。关于草原田鼠的社会行为(包括双亲照料)和神经生物学(特别是OT和VP系统)的大量知识使这些社会性一夫一妻制动物成为检验这一假说的特殊模型。我们的一般方法是确定是否有照顾者在出生后环境中影响认知发展或社会行为，并确定OT或VP的发展差异是否与行为结果有关。在目标1中，我们将对比父爱和母爱，以确定断奶前社会经历的后果，要么减少父爱(去除父亲)，要么增加母爱(诱导舔/梳理)。我们将确定父亲对后代发展的重要性，以及母亲是否会补偿缺席的父亲。在目标2中，我们将调查“单身工作母亲”对子女的影响。通过增加获得食物的困难，母亲将面临为食物工作或照顾后代之间的内在权衡。在这两个目标中，我们将评估后代的社交焦虑、社会认知、探索、攻击性和社会偏好，并将表征OT、VP及其受体的表达。这些研究将为双亲照料的重要性提供更清晰的图景。这项提案极大地推进了美国国立卫生研究院追求“关于生命系统行为的基本知识”的使命，旨在改善心理健康和人类发展过程中的健康。这项工作将揭示许多构成出生后发育的神经生物学，并可能促进对调节人类社会行为和功能障碍的机制的更深层次的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this research program is to understand the impact of early-life affiliative experiences on social behavior in a bi-parental mammal. We will examine the developmental consequences on neurobiology and behavior resulting from 'broken homes' in which fathers are absent, or mothers compromise offspring care for food acquisition. Parent-offspring interactions provide the principle social experiences for developing young, and may have life-long ramifications that shape social decisions. Humans are bi-parental. Unfortunately, most of what we know about behavioral development comes from species whose social organization differs significantly from our own. The hormones oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP) are inextricably linked with the control of social behavior and are particularly well known for their influences on parental care and affiliation. Our recent work has demonstrated that fathers impact offspring adult social interactions, and the postnatal environment shapes OT and VP receptor expression in the developing brain. Thus, the ontogenetic changes in social behavior are probably rooted in concurrent changes in the social brain. Our hypothesis is: manipulating bi-parental care will produce offspring with varied social and cognitive ability, which will relate to physiological differences in oxytocinergic and vasopressinergic gene expression. The substantial knowledge about prairie vole social behavior (including bi-parental care) and neurobiology (OT and VP systems in particular) makes these socially monogamous animals an exceptional model to test this hypothesis. Our general approach is to determine if the presence or absence of caregivers in the postnatal environment influences cognitive development or social behavior, and determine if developmental differences in OT or VP relate to behavioral outcomes. In Aim 1, we will contrast paternal and maternal care to identify consequences of pre-wean social experience, by either reducing paternal care (removing fathers) or increasing maternal care (inducing licking / grooming). We will determine the importance of fathers on offspring development and if mothers compensate for absent fathers. In Aim 2, we will investigate the influence of 'single working moms' on offspring. By increasing the difficulty for access to food, mothers will be faced with the inherent trade-off between working for food or caring for offspring. In both aims, we will evaluate offspring social anxiety, social cognition, exploration, aggression, and social preferences, and we will characterize the expression of OT, VP and their receptors. These studies will provide a clearer picture of the importance of bi-parental care. This proposal significantly advances the NIH mission to pursue 'fundamental knowledge about the behavior of living systems' and is designed to improve both mental health and health in the process of human development. This work will reveal much of the neurobiology that underlies postnatal development, and could foster a deeper understanding of mechanisms regulating human social behavior and dysfunction.