Neuroendocrinology of human social behaviour

根据加拿大统计局进行的综合社会调查，2014年加拿大公民报告了220万起暴力事件（包括性侵犯，身体攻击和抢劫）。显然，攻击性是人类生活的一个共同特征，在许多不同的社会环境中，包括学校、工作场所、公路（即，“公路”）、运动场馆和战场。虽然攻击性可以发挥重要的适应功能（例如，竞争有价值的资源，保护自己免受攻击），当攻击性反应的强度，频率和持续时间与明显的原因不成比例时，它可能会变得适应不良。长期以来，研究人员一直怀疑睾酮（T）可能是影响人们从事攻击行为程度的生物学罪魁祸首之一。虽然T的基线水平与人类的攻击性只有微弱的相关性，但我们已经证明，竞争和挑衅引起的T变化可靠地预测了男性的攻击性行为，但不是女性。此外，在NSERC发现资助（2014-2020）的支持下，我们开发了新的药理学挑战范式，以评估T在调节男性攻击性方面发挥因果作用的程度。这项研究表明，单剂量的T会迅速增加攻击性行为，尤其是对于具有主导和/或冲动特征的男性。 最后，我们发现T对攻击性的影响取决于雄激素受体基因多态性区域的变异性。 在目前的实验中，我们建议以几种重要的方式建立这些发现。首先，我们将开发一种新的药理学挑战协议，以检查在何种程度上的侵略增强作用的T介导的雄激素受体。此外，我们将开发一种新的药理学挑战范式来研究T在促进女性攻击性方面的因果作用。我们还将通过同时操纵T和皮质醇浓度并评估这些激素相互作用的程度来预测人类攻击的变异性，从而对“双激素”假说进行关键性检验。最后，我们将评估T在调节人类交配行为中发挥更广泛作用的程度。这个创新的研究计划整合了社会心理学，内分泌学，神经科学和药理学的理论和方法，最终目标是详细说明指导人类攻击行为和交配相关心理和行为的个体差异的基本神经内分泌机制。

According to the General Social Survey conducted by Statistics Canada, 2.2 million violent incidents (including sexual assault, physical assault, and robbery) were reported by Canadian citizens in 2014. Clearly, aggression is a common feature of human life and is expressed to varying degrees in many different social contexts including schools, workplace, highways (i.e., `road rage'), athletic venues, and the battlefield. Although aggression can serve important adaptive functions (e.g., competing for valued resources, defending oneself against attack), it may become maladaptive when the intensity, frequency, and duration of the aggressive response is out of proportion to the apparent cause(s). Researchers have long suspected that testosterone (T) may be one of the biological culprits that influences the extent to which people engage in aggressive behaviour. Although baseline levels of T are only weakly associated with human aggression, we have demonstrated that competition- and provocation- induced changes in T reliably predict aggressive behaviour in men, but not women. Furthermore, with the support of an NSERC Discovery Grant (2014-2020) we have developed novel pharmacological challenge paradigms to assess the extent to which T plays a causal role in modulating aggression in men. This research indicated that a single dose of T rapidly increased aggressive behaviour, especially in men with dominant and/or impulsive characteristics.  Finally, we have found that effects of T on aggression depend upon variability in a polymorphic region of the androgen receptor gene.  In the current experiments, we propose to build upon these findings in several important ways. First, we will develop a novel pharmacological challenge protocol to examine the extent to which the aggression-potentiating effects of T are mediated by the androgen receptor. Further, we will development a novel pharmacological challenge paradigm to investigate T's causal role in promoting aggression in women. We will also provide a critical test of the "dual hormone" hypothesis by simultaneously manipulating T and cortisol concentrations and assessing the extent to which these hormones interact to predict variability in human aggression. Finally, we will assess the extent to which T plays a broader role in modulating human mating behaviour. This innovative program of research integrates theory and methodology from social psychology, endocrinology, neuroscience, and pharmacology toward the ultimate goal of detailing the basic neuroendocrine mechanisms guiding individual differences in human aggressive behaviour and mating-related psychology and behaviour.