Disentangling mechanisms of sociality and mating tactics

公众奖摘要在脊椎动物中，雄性使用各种策略来获得生殖雌性，这些策略可能与社交能力的变化有关。例如，与一只雌性形成高度选择性配对纽带的雄性可能不太具有社会性，而高度社会性的雄性可能会表现出另一种交配策略，即尽管有联系，它们仍会与许多雌性乱交求爱。该项目提出，要想了解在一些男性身上出现的新的、独特的交配策略，需要了解大脑-行为关系之间的相互作用，这些关系是高度社交(称为亲社会行为)的基础，而选择性社交行为会导致配对结合。通过探索这两种社会行为的大脑-行为关系，该项目旨在了解行为的神经来源，这些行为只能通过间接探索社会大脑中其他行为的神经来源来研究。在这种情况下，要理解男性对伴侣的忠诚度，就需要了解社交能力变化的神经基础。这个项目探索了一个新的想法，即一些社会行为间接植根于服务于不同但相似功能的神经回路。这些研究的目的代表了人们对社交大脑功能的思考发生了转变。为此，我们将培训本科生掌握神经科学方面的先进技术，并正式培训他们与服务不足(主要是难民)的小学学龄儿童进行科学宣传。技术摘要社会性和交配系统是相互依赖的行为类别，它们支配着生殖决策的不同要素。这个项目将解开一般亲社会行为和选择性亲社会行为的综合影响，以研究替代生殖策略的差异。这个假设是，高度的社交能力通过社交渠道创造了性不忠的机会。外侧隔(LS)是高度网络化的，对社交和交配系统都有影响。重点放在草原田鼠身上，这是一种社会性一夫一妻制的物种，结对的雄性在性方面的忠诚度不同，尽管保持着强大的结对。一个关键的预测是，社交乱交(即非特定的社交方式)是由终纹内侧床核(BSTm)和LS之间的联系控制的。高度的社会性应该会为动物创造机会，让它们参与额外的配偶求偶和交配，而不是依赖于纽带的强度。该项目将确定：[1]BSTm-LS神经元活动在使用逆转录-CRE化学发生神经操作调节社会一夫一妻制中的作用，[2]LS中的加压素和GABA如何通过药理操作和可视化神经活动来调节社会方法和性不忠，以及[3]通过化学发生学激活LS神经是否影响复杂社会背景下的社会方法和交配决策。这项研究将利用亲社会性和一夫一妻制之间的交集，通过操纵一个社会行为领域的神经元功能来观察另一个领域(生殖决策)的后果，从而拓宽对社会大脑功能的理解。该项目将利用培训各级URM学生神经行为学的先进方法的良好记录，以及在社区课堂环境中与服务不足和边缘化的K-12岁儿童的社区参与。该奖项反映了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 AbstractAcross vertebrates, males use a diversity of tactics to gain access to reproductive females, and these tactics may be associated with variation in sociability. For example, males that form highly selective pair bonds with one female might be less generally social whereas males that are highly social may express an alternative mating tactic, where they court and mate promiscuously with many females despite being bonded. This project proposes that understanding new and distinct mating tactics that emerge in some males requires understanding the interaction of brain-behavior relationships that underlie high sociability (known as prosocial behavior) and selective social behavior that leads to pairbonding. By exploring brain-behavior relationships of these two social behaviors, the project aims to understand the neural sources for behaviors that can only be studied by indirectly exploring the neural sources of other behaviors within the social brain. In this case, understanding male fidelity to a pairbonded partner requires understanding the neural basis of variation in sociability. This project explores the novel idea that some social behaviors are indirectly rooted in neural circuitry that serves a distinct but similar function. The aims of these studies represent a shift in thinking about the function of the social brain. In doing so, we will train undergraduate students in advanced techniques in neuroscience, and formally train them to engage in science outreach with a population of underserved (mostly refugee) elementary school-aged children. Technical abstractSociality and mating systems are interdependent classes of behavior that govern distinct elements of reproductive decision-making. This project will disentangle the aggregated effects of general and selective prosocial behavior to study variation in alternative reproductive tactics. The hypothesis is high sociability creates opportunities for sexual infidelity via social access. The lateral septum (LS) is highly networked and impacts both sociability and mating system. Focus is placed on prairie voles, a socially monogamous species where pairbonded males vary in sexual fidelity, in spite of maintaining strong pairbonds. A key prediction is that social promiscuity (i.e., non-specific social approach) is gated by the connections between the medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTm) and the LS. High sociability should create opportunities for animals to engage in extra-pair courtship and copulation independent of bond strength. The project will determine: [1] the role of BSTm-LS neuronal activity in regulating social monogamy using retro-Cre chemogenetic neural manipulations, [2] how vasopressin and GABA in the LS modulate social approach and sexual infidelity using pharmacological manipulation and visualizing neural activity, and [3] if LS neural activation via chemogenetics affects social approach and mating decisions in a complex social context. This research will exploit the intersection between prosociality and monogamy to broaden understanding of social brain function by manipulating neuronal function in one domain of social behavior to observe the consequences in another (reproductive decision-making). The project will leverage a strong record of training URM students at all levels in advanced methods in neuroethology, and community engagement with underserved and marginalized K-12 aged children in a community classroom environment.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.