Neuroendocrinology of human social behaviour

根据加拿大统计局进行的一般社会调查，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都有不同程度的表现，包括学校、工作场所、高速公路(即“公路狂暴”)、运动场和战场。虽然攻击性可以起到重要的适应功能(例如，争夺有价值的资源，保护自己免受攻击)，但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，它可能会变得不适应(S)。研究人员长期以来一直怀疑，睾酮(T)可能是影响人们攻击性行为程度的生物学罪魁祸首之一。尽管T的基线水平与人类的攻击性只有微弱的联系，但我们已经证明，竞争和挑衅诱导的T的变化可以可靠地预测男性的攻击性行为，但不能预测女性的攻击性行为。此外，在NSERC发现基金(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，特别是在具有显性和/或冲动特征的男性中。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区域的变异性。在目前的实验中，我们建议在几个重要方面建立在这些发现的基础上。首先，我们将开发一种新的药理学挑战方案来检查T的攻击性增强效应在多大程度上是由雄激素受体介导的。此外，我们将开发一个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。我们还将通过同时控制T和皮质醇的浓度并评估这些激素相互作用的程度来预测人类攻击性的变异性，从而对“双激素”假说进行关键测试。最后，我们将评估T在调节人类交配行为方面发挥更广泛作用的程度。这一创新的研究项目整合了社会心理学、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性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.