Neurobiological and Neurochemical mechanisms underlying emotional regulation

情绪是高度适应性和复杂的状态，包括我们的内部感受，例如快乐或恐惧，我们的生理反应，例如手心出汗，心跳加速，以及我们的行为反应，例如接近好东西和避免有害的东西。它们是由环境中的刺激触发的，通过过去的经验，已经获得了情感意义。然而，我们对这种情绪刺激的即时反应并不总是有益的，我们需要能够随时适应并快速修改我们的情绪反应，是否？It’在工作场所，或者在家里。调节情绪的能力对我们的生理、心理和社会福祉至关重要，当这种能力受损时，它会对我们产生深远的有害影响。以情绪障碍为核心特征的一系列神经精神障碍，包括焦虑、抑郁、精神分裂症、自闭症和反社会病，就说明了这一点。仅焦虑症就有16%的终生患病率。研究表明，在许多这些神经精神疾病中，大脑的各个区域都存在病理变化，包括眶额皮质和杏仁核。此外，大脑中的一些化学信使也存在不平衡，包括血清素。事实上，许多用于治疗这些神经精神疾病的药物都是针对血清素的。然而，这些大脑区域究竟如何有助于情绪调节，以及血清素所扮演的角色，却知之甚少。我们将通过模拟它们在实验动物大脑中的作用来研究这一点，这些实验动物进行行为测试，测量它们调节情绪的能力。该计划提供的好处最终在于了解大脑的这些不同区域如何控制我们的情绪，以及血清素如何调节这些大脑区域。这些信息对于我们开发新疗法的能力至关重要，以及更有效地针对当前疗法，用于一系列神经精神疾病。

Emotions are highly adaptive and complex states, which include our internal feelings, e.g. happiness or fear, our physiological reactions, e.g. sweaty palms, racing heart, and our behavioural responses e.g. approaching something nice and avoiding something harmful. They are triggered by stimuli in the environment, that through past experience, have gained emotional significance. However, our immediate reactions to such emotive stimuli are not always beneficial, and we need to be able to adapt and rapidly modify our emotional responses on a moment-by-moment basis, whether it?s in the workplace, or at home. The ability to regulate our emotions is essential for our physiological, psychological and social well-being and when this ability is impaired it can have a profound, deleterious impact on us. This is illustrated by the range of neuropsychiatric disorders in which emotional disturbance is a core feature, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, autism and sociopathy. Anxiety disorders alone have a lifetime prevalence of 16%. It has been shown that in many of these neuropsychiatric disorders there is pathology in various regions of the brain, including the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. In addition, there are also imbalances in a number of chemical messengers in the brain, including serotonin. Indeed, many drugs used to treat these neuropsychiatric disorders, target serotonin. However, exactly how these brain regions contribute to emotional regulation, and the role played by serotonin, is poorly understood. We will investigate this by modelling their effects in the brains of experimental animals performing behavioural tests that measure their ability to regulate their emotions. The benefits provided by this Programme lie eventually in understanding how these different regions of the brain control our emotions and how serotonin modulates these brain regions. This information is critical for our ability to develop novel therapies, as well as target current therapies more effectively, for a range of neuropsychiatric