Doctoral Dissertation Research: Impact of early social adversity on brain structure in primates

早期的社会逆境可以塑造一个人的大脑和一生的行为，但这些负面经历是如何发挥其影响的，人们仍然知之甚少。本博士论文项目研究了两种非人类灵长类动物的早期生活环境与微观脑解剖方面的关系。该研究利用现有的灵长类动物大脑收集来推进对早期生活压力源、大脑和行为的了解，并为人类类似过程的研究提供了更广泛的比较背景。该项目支持STEM的研究生研究和培训，并为将在研究中发挥积极作用的本科生提供实验室培训和指导机会。研究人员计划通过出版物、会议演讲和与公众的科学参与活动与广泛的受众分享这些结果。在生命的早期，许多物种的幼崽依赖于它们的母亲或照顾者提供情感支持，并教会它们茁壮成长所需的技能。过去的研究表明，在幼年时与母亲或照顾者分离的成年动物在大脑中表现出解剖学上的差异，例如某些大脑区域和连接这些结构的脑束的大小显着增加。值得注意的是，大脑中受影响最大的部分构成了奖励回路，其功能是促进学习和激励行为。因此，大脑中的这些解剖差异可能会导致与早期社会逆境相关的社会和认知缺陷的发展。本项目的主要目的是在微观层面上研究生命早期的饲养环境如何导致奖励回路的长期结构变化。研究人员利用现有的灵长类动物大脑标本来比较两个物种中具有不同养育历史的个体，这两个物种被认为在神经可塑性方面存在差异。在每一个大脑中，研究人员进行分析以可视化和量化。神经元之间的连接，2。2 .神经元形态学；神经元受体的表达。有了这些数据，研究人员可以开始描述由于早期社会逆境而导致的大脑结构变化背后的机制。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Early social adversity can shape an individual’s brain and behavior across the lifespan, but how these negative experiences exert their influence remains poorly understood. This doctoral dissertation project investigates the relationship between early life environment and aspects of microscopic brain anatomy in two nonhuman primate species. The research leverages existing primate brain collections to advance knowledge about early life stressors, brain, and behavior, and provides broader comparative context for research on similar processes in humans. The project supports graduate research and training in STEM and provides laboratory training and mentoring opportunities to undergraduate students who will have an active role in the research. The investigators plan to share these results with broad audiences via publications, conference talks, and science engagement activities with the public.In early life, young individuals of many species rely on their mothers or caregivers to provide emotional support and to teach them the skills needed to thrive. Past research has indicated that adult animals who experienced separation from their mothers or caregivers at a young age exhibit anatomical differences in their brains such as significant increases in the size of some brain areas and tracts that connect these structures. Notably, the parts of the brain that are most affected make up the reward circuit, which functions to promote learning and motivate behaviors. Consequently, these anatomical differences in the brain could contribute to the development of social and cognitive deficits associated with early social adversity. The main objective of this project is to investigate at the microscopic level how rearing environment in early life can result in long-term structural changes of the reward circuit. The investigators use existing primate brain collections to compare individuals with different rearing histories across two species that are thought to vary in terms of neural plasticity. In each of these brains, the investigators perform analyses to visualize and quantify 1. connections made between neurons, 2. morphology of neurons, and 3. receptor expression of neurons. With these data, the investigators can begin to describe the mechanisms behind changes in brain structure as a result of early social adversity.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.