Neural mechanisms of social preferences

动物和人类不仅能够接受感官信息，而且能够赋予这些感官刺激一定的价值，神经科学中的一个关键问题是大脑如何编码这些关于刺激的显著性或重要性的信息。 影响行为偏好的参数已被深入研究的一个领域是配偶选择。 在许多物种中，雌性基于特定的特征对雄性表现出偏好。 然而，这些偏好和择偶决定背后的神经机制在很大程度上尚未被探索。 鸣禽是研究行为偏好的神经基础的一个很好的模型系统。 例如，在鸣禽中，雌性经常根据它们的歌声来评估潜在配偶的质量。 此外，一些高级听觉区域的基因表达随着突出或偏好的歌曲的呈现而发生变化。 因此，我的长期研究目标是研究雌性鸣禽，以阐明雌性偏好和择偶的神经基础。 我的工作将使用神经生理学，神经化学和免疫组织化学方法相结合，以调查的神经机制，潜在的歌曲感知和偏好，在雌性斑胸草雀，神经回路参与将偏好转化为交配决策和社会的作用和感官经验的影响，在塑造的神经回路的基础上的偏好和交配选择。 在短期内，我将开始通过研究大脑如何编码求爱歌曲的偏好，以及早期发育和成年期的经历如何塑造行为偏好及其神经基质来解决这些更广泛的问题。最终，通过将对自然行为偏好的研究与对单个神经元活动以及神经回路活动的详细分析相结合，我的研究计划将增强我们对感觉生理学一般过程的理解，并深入了解感知和决策的神经基础。

Both animals and humans are capable not only of taking in sensory information but also attributing some value to those sensory stimuli, and a critical question in neuroscience is how the brain encodes such information about the salience or significance of a stimulus. One area where the parameters affecting behavioural preferences have been intensively well studied is mate choice. In many species, females show preferences for males based on particular features. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these preferences and mate choice decisions are largely unexplored. Songbirds are an excellent model system in which to study the neural basis of behavioural preferences. For example, in songbirds females often assess the quality of potential mates based on their song. Moreover, a number of higher-level auditory areas show changes in gene expression with the presentation of salient or preferred songs. Thus, the long-term aim of my research is to study female songbirds to elucidate the neural basis of female preferences and mate choice. My work will use a combination of neurophysiological, neurochemical and immunohistochemical methods to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying song perception and preferences in female zebra finches, the neural circuitry involved in transforming preferences into mating decisions and the role of social and sensory experiences in shaping the neural circuitry underlying preferences and mating selection. In the near term I will begin to address these broader questions by investigating how the brain encodes preferences for courtship song and how experiences early in development as well as in adulthood shape both the behavioural preferences and their neural substrate. Ultimately,by combining studies of natural behavioural preferences with detailed analysis of the activity of single neurons as well as the activity of neural circuits, my research program will enhance our understanding of general processes of sensory physiology as well as lend insight into the neural basis of perception and decision-making.