BEHAVIORAL EPIGENETICS AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

许多动物协会建立的结构对它们的生存和成功至关重要。例如，人类社会在提供环境保护的房屋和建筑物内建造、生活和工作。然而，构建的结构对社会群体的行为和认知过程的影响仍然知之甚少。这项研究试图了解建筑环境如何影响高度社会性动物的行为和大脑功能。研究小组将以火蚁为模型，研究蚁巢结构对认知和社会行为的影响。该研究计划将确定个人如何共同努力，利用集体行为建立结构。研究人员还将通过检测蚂蚁在不同环境中大脑活动的变化来研究不同环境如何影响社会认知。最后，该团队将通过挑战蚂蚁生活在物理组织不同的实验性制造的巢穴中，来确定群体功能在不同环境中的变化。该计划还将通过在亚特兰大全市推广教学、培训和学习活动，扩大拟议研究的影响。此外，这项研究将具有重要的应用方面，通过加深我们对复杂地形中的交通和运动的理解，并通过提供关于广泛传播的害虫行为的重要信息。总体而言，该项目结合了行为、遗传、技术和物理方法，以了解建成环境对社会功能和社会认知的影响。高度社会化的物种，如群居昆虫的成功，关键依赖于筑巢。然而，关于鸟巢结构如何影响集体行为以及与认知相关的分子过程，人们知之甚少。这项提议的目标是更好地理解筑巢和生活在昆虫社会中的行为和表观遗传后果。研究小组将首先研究集体建筑行为是如何从个人行为中产生的。这将提供对个人行为如何成功地导致集体活动的洞察。其次，研究人员将确定社会环境如何影响大脑中的表观遗传过程。蚂蚁在不同生物和物理环境下的DNA甲基化模式将揭示大脑中的表观遗传信息如何与基因表达的变化相关联。这些实验将展示表观遗传信息如何与不同社会条件下的基因活动相联系。最后，研究小组将确定建筑环境如何影响集体行为。这些研究将展示不同的物理结构如何影响大脑中的社会互动、感知和基因活动。总体而言，这个项目调查认知、社会行为和建筑环境之间的联系。这项研究最终将开启一个新的跨学科研究方向，旨在了解影响社会行为和社会群体构建的分子过程。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。

Many animal societies build structures that are fundamentally important to their survival and success. For example, human societies build, live, and work within houses and buildings that provide protection from the environment. However, the effects of built structures on behavioral and cognitive processes of social groups remain poorly understood. This research program attempts to understand how the built environment affects behavior and brain function in highly social animals. The research team will use fire ants as models to study the effects of nest structure on cognition and social behavior. The research program will determine how individuals work together to build structures using collective behaviors. The investigators will also study how different environments affect social cognition by examining changes in brain activity of ants in distinct environments. Finally, the team will determine how colony function changes in different settings by challenging ants to live in experimentally fabricated nests that differ in physical organization. This program will also broaden the impact of the proposed studies by promoting teaching, training, and learning activities throughout the city of Atlanta. In addition, the research will have important applied aspects by furthering our understanding of traffic and movement in complex landscapes, and by providing important information about the behavior of a widespread pest insect. Overall, this project combines behavioral, genetic, technological, and physical approaches to understanding the effects of the built environment on society function and social cognition. The success of highly social species, such as social insects, relies critically on the construction of nests. However, little is known about how nest structure affects collective behavior and the molecular processes associated with cognition. The goal of this proposal is to gain a greater understanding of the behavioral and epigenetic consequences of nest construction and living in insect societies. The research team will first study how collective building behaviors emerge from individual actions. This will provide insight into how individual behaviors successfully lead to group activities. Second, the investigators will determine how the social environment affects epigenetic processes in the brain. Patterns of DNA methylation of ants subjected to different biological and physical environments will reveal how epigenetic information in the brain is associated with changes in gene expression. These experiments will demonstrate how epigenetic information is linked to gene activity under different social conditions. Finally, the research team will determine how the built environment affects collective behaviors. These studies will demonstrate how different physical structures affect social interactions, perception, and gene activity in the brain. Overall, this program investigates the link between cognition, social behavior, and the built environment. The research will ultimately initiate a new, interdisciplinary research direction aimed at understanding molecular processes affecting social behavior and construction by social groups.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.