Formation of Infant/Father Social Relationship

描述（由申请人提供）：婴儿对母亲、父亲、兄弟姐妹和陌生人做出适当反应的能力是衡量他们社会能力的一种标准。社会行为障碍预示着未来的精神病理，也可能增加虐待的可能性。众所周知，婴儿行为可能是虐待的一个风险因素，了解婴儿社会行为的调节和早期生活社会纽带的形成对于创造成功的干预措施至关重要，这些干预措施可以改善情绪和身体健康。早期社会关系形成和调节的动物模型将是这项工作的重要资产。这个实验室用幼鼠开发了一个模型，可以应用于形成与父亲或另一个成年雄性的社会关系，这是人类虐待儿童的高比例肇事者。提出的实验测试了婴儿气味偏好形成的学习过程是否是与父亲形成积极社会关系的关键组成部分。实验还将确定敏感期；个人认知是否是改变后的社会行为的组成部分；以及遗传关系和/或产前经历在这一过程中的作用。最近的社会交往和个体发生史都可以极大地改变大鼠幼仔的分离反应强度，这是由隔离诱导的超声波发声（USV）测量的。一只孤立的幼崽与其母崽短暂接触，既会降低母崽在场时的USV率，即“接触安静”，也会显著提高幼崽随后因隔离而产生的发声率，即“母性增强”。在水坝饲养的幼崽中，与不熟悉的父亲接触会产生“行为抑制”，一种类似恐惧的不动和USV的抑制。被隔离的幼崽在与它们熟悉的父亲团聚时，会安静下来，但也会嗅它的皮毛，在它的身体下面挖洞。父王的移除现在会引起更多的召唤。总之，这些行为表明一种深刻改变的社会关系的形成。双亲抚养- usv测试范式是一种独特而新颖的模型，在研究调节早期社会关系形成及其后期影响的神经行为过程中具有广泛的应用。对老鼠的研究将阐明人类更复杂的社会互动和依恋是如何形成的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability of infants to respond appropriately to mother, father, siblings and strangers is a measure of their social competence. Impairments of social behavior predict future psychopathology and can also increase the likelihood of abuse. As it is known that infant behavior can be a risk factor for abuse, understanding the regulation of infant social behavior and the formation of early-life social bonds is vital in the creation of successful interventions that can lead to improved emotional and physical health. An animal model of the formation and regulation of early-life social bonds would be an important asset in this work. This laboratory has developed a model with infant rats that can be applied to the formation of a social relationship to the sire or another adult male, perpetrators of a high proportion of child abuse in humans. The proposed experiments test whether the learning processes underlying the creation of infantile odor preferences are a critical component of the formation of a positive social bond with the sire. The experiments will also identify sensitive periods; whether individual recognition is an integral part of the altered social behavior; and the role of genetic relationship and/or prenatal experience in the process. Both recent social interactions and ontogenetic history can greatly alter the intensity of the separation response of rat pups, as measured by isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations (USV). Brief contact of an isolated pup with its dam causes both a reduction of USV rate in her presence, 'contact quieting', and also dramatically increases the pup's subsequent isolation-induced vocalization rate, 'maternal potentiation'. In dam-reared pups, contact with their unfamiliar sire produces 'behavioral inhibition', a fear-like immobility and suppression of USV. After being reared both dam and sire, isolated pups will quiet during reunion with their familiar sire, but also nose its fur and burrow under its body. The sire's removal now induces increased calling. Together, these behaviors indicate the formation of a profoundly altered social relationship. The biparental rearing-USV testing paradigm is a unique and novel model with wide applications for investigation of the neurobehavioral processes regulating formation of early-life social relationships and their later-life consequences. Studies using rats will elucidate the basic building blocks from which the more complex social interactions and attachments of humans are shaped.