树鼩社会竞争模型的PET成像研究

当今社会的竞争日趋激烈，激烈的社会竞争在推动社会发展的同时，也引发了大量的相关精神疾病（最主要是抑郁症），给社会带来很大负担。但是其神经机制目前仍不清楚，因此研究社会竞争尤其是竞争失败对大脑的影响具有重要的科学意义和社会价值。树鼩作为灵长类动物的近亲，是构建社会竞争模型的理想动物。本项目将利用PET成像技术对树鼩社会竞争模型进行研究，主要研究内容包括：1）急性社会竞争会引起哪些脑区的功能发生变化；2）慢性社会竞争会引起哪些脑区的功能发生变化；3）在社会竞争开始前或进行期间给予抗抑郁药是否可以预防竞争失败导致的抑郁样症状的出现，这种预防作用与哪些脑区有关； 4）在社会竞争结束后给予抗抑郁药物治疗能否逆转竞争失败后出现的抑郁样症状，这种逆转作用与哪些脑区有关；5）若能逆转，停药后会不会复发，与哪些脑区有关。该项目的研究成果对于理解社会竞争诱发精神的神经机制及其预防和治疗具有重要意义。

People in contemporary society are facing increasingly fierce competition. On one hand, social competition is propelling the development of human society; on the other hand, it also causes a mount of mental diseases (typically depression), giving rise to a huge burden on the society. Up to now, however, the neurological mechanism of competition-related diseases is still unclear. Therefore, the research on social competition, especially the influence on brain from failure in competition, is meaningful in both scientific and social scopes. Tree shrews, as the close relative of primates, are the ideal candidates to construct a social competition model. This project aims to use PET scanning to study the tree shrew social competition model. The main research contents includes: (1) to determine which brain areas show functional changes caused by acute social competition; (2) to determine which brain areas show functional changes caused by chronic social competition; (3) to determine whether the use of antidepressants before or during social competition may prevent the depression-like symptoms caused by failure of competition, and which brain areas are related to this prevention effects; (4) to determine whether the use of antidepressants after social competition may revert the depression-like symptoms caused by failure of competition, and which brain areas are related to this reversion effects; (5) if revertible, to determine whether the symptoms may recur after the stop of antidepressants and which brain areas are related to this recurrence. The results of this project are of importance to understand the neurological mechanism of competition and to prevent and treat these competition-related mental diseases.