Neurobiology of Female Aggression

公众奖摘要每个人都知道，在哺乳动物中，雄性具有攻击性，而雌性则不具有攻击性。尽管众所周知，但这是一种误解，源于对动物社会行为的测试和观察，这些行为是在有利于雄性具有攻击性的情况下产生的。雌性哺乳动物确实具有攻击性，尽管在不同的环境下与雄性哺乳动物不同。这种长期存在但错误的关于攻击性性别差异的观点阻碍了我们对女性攻击性的生物学基础的理解。因此，这项研究在其概念和目标上具有很高的创新性，目的是纠正我们对女性攻击性神经科学知识的不平衡。这项研究将针对控制雌性动物攻击性的大脑部位提出一组具体的假设。在这些脑区的神经细胞(神经元)中，特定化学反应平衡的波动被认为是为了调节雌性动物是否参与攻击。最后，神经细胞由于反复的攻击性接触而发生物理变化的想法将得到检验(至少对于那些遭遇的获胜者来说是这样)。除了研究本身和向公众传播研究结果外，该研究计划还将用于在课堂上促进科学教育，通过社区活动和讲座的形式提供公共宣传，并激发本科生对科学职业的兴趣。这项提案中的研究旨在揭示几个领域中女性攻击性规则的新闻见解。众所周知，赢得一场攻击性的交锋会增加女性在未来的交锋中表现出攻击性的可能性。这种基于经验的攻击性升级与伏隔核中棘神经元中树突棘密度的增加有关，这对男性和女性来说都是一个新发现。这种结构可塑性的基础是攻击性经历后mTOR和FMRP信号的变化。这项研究确定了FMRP的自然作用及其对脆性X综合征病理以外的神经元可塑性的调节，这是拟议研究的另一个创新组成部分，也是研究方向。此外，这项提案中的研究旨在确定攻击、细胞内信号和伏隔核结构变化之间的功能联系。总体而言，这项研究将检验这一新的假设，即女性在未来的遭遇中存在一个重复的攻击性经历的前馈过程，该过程会升级攻击性，从而增加优势并最终繁殖成功。这一行为过程需要在伏隔核产生长期可塑性的神经元信号。总而言之，这项研究将详细了解女性攻击性的神经生物学，使我们看待女性母亲攻击性的方式发生转变。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Public Award AbstractEveryone knows that among mammals males are aggressive and females are not. Despite the common knowledge, this is a misconception that was born from testing and observing animal social behavior is situations that favored males to be aggressive. Female mammals are indeed aggressive, though in different circumstances than are males. This long-standing, but incorrect view, of sex differences in aggression has hindered our understanding of the biology underlying aggression in females. This research is therefore highly innovative in its concept and as well as its goal to correct the imbalance in our knowledge of the neuroscience of female aggression. The research will address a specific set of hypotheses targeted at brain sites regulating aggression in female animals. Within the nerve cells (neurons) in these brain areas, fluctuations in the balance of specific chemical reactions are proposed to regulate whether or not female animals engage in aggression. Finally, the idea that the nerve cells physically change as a result of repeated aggressive encounters (at least for the winners of those encounters) will be tested. Beyond the research itself and communicating the results of the research to the public, the research program will be used to foster science education in the classroom, provide public outreach in the form of community events and lectures, and to generate interest in scientific careers for undergraduate students.The research in this proposal is designed to uncover news insights into the regulation of female aggression in several realms. It is well known that winning an aggressive encounter increases the likelihood that females will be aggressive in future encounters. This experience-based escalation of aggression correlates with increased dendritic spine density in medium spiny neurons of the nucleus accumbens, a novel finding for either males or females. Underlying this structural plasticity are changes in mTOR and FMRP signaling following aggressive experiences. This research identifies a natural role for FMRP and its regulation of neuronal plasticity beyond the pathology of fragile X syndrome, a research direction that is another innovative component of the proposed research. Further, the research in this proposal is designed to identify a functional link between aggression, intracellular signaling and structural changes in the nucleus accumbens. Overall, the research will test the novel hypothesis that there is a feed-forward process with repeated aggressive experience in females that escalates aggression in future encounters, thus increasing dominance and ultimately reproductive success. This behavioral process requires neuronal signaling that produces long-term plasticity in the nucleus accumbens. Collectively, the research will develop a detailed understanding of the neurobiology of female aggression, yielding a transformational shift in how we view aggression in female mammals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.