Neural Networks Supporting Social and Emotional Behavior

众所周知，社会环境会影响身心健康。拥有更多社会关系的人经历的疾病更少，当他们这样做时，恢复得更快、更彻底。了解社会背景影响幸福感的机制，将有助于开发新的病理学干预和治疗方法，特别是精神病。尽管越来越多的证据表明了社会关系和幸福感之间的关系，但人们对这种关系的生物学机制知之甚少。一种可能的机制是，社会环境影响大脑解剖，进而影响幸福感。在人类和猴子身上收集的新证据表明，一个人拥有的社会关系越多，杏仁核和其他对情绪产生和调节至关重要的大脑区域的体积就越大。这些数据指出了社交网络规模与大脑区域的结构和功能之间的关系，这些区域对情绪和幸福感很重要，尽管它们留下了一些重要的问题没有得到回答。首先，重要的是社交网络的规模，还是S个人的社会角色会影响神经解剖学？第二，S在发育早期的社会角色如何影响一生中的神经解剖学？第三，情绪脑神经解剖学如何调节社会生活对情绪加工的影响？拟议工作的目标就是回答这些问题。为此，我将首先使用正式的社会网络分析来表征S个人的社会角色。这样的分析提供了有关个人拥有的社会关系数量的信息，但也提供了关于个人在该网络中扮演什么具体角色的信息。然后，个人将接受神经成像，以确定感兴趣的神经解剖区域的结构和功能连通性。他们还将完成测试，以表征他们的情绪处理过程。我将首先通过对成人受试者的横断面研究(具体目标1、3)来检验社会角色是否会影响脑神经解剖和情绪处理。接下来，我将使用一项实验性的纵向研究设计(具体目标2，3)，研究发育早期的社会角色是否会影响神经解剖学，以及在关键发育时期(从童年到成年)发展新社会关系的能力。总而言之，这些数据将允许评估社会角色对情绪处理的影响，这是通过神经解剖学在整个生命周期中进行的。

It is well established that social context impacts physical and mental health. People with more social connections experience less illness and recover more quickly and thoroughly when they do. Understanding the mechanism by which social context influences wellbeing will allow for the development of new interventions and treatments for pathology, and in particular psychopathy. Despite accumulating evidence that illustrates a relationship between social relationships and wellbeing, little is known about the biological mechanisms that subserve that relationship. One possible mechanism is that social context influences brain anatomy which in turn influences wellbeing. New evidence collected in people and monkeys illustrates that the more social relationships an individual has, the larger the volume of the amygdala and other brain regions critically important for the generation and regulation of emotions. These data point to a relationship between social network size and the structure and function of brain areas that are important for emotion and wellbeing, although they leave a number of important questions unanswered. First, is it only social network size that matters, or does an individual¿s social role impact neuroanatomy? Second, how does an individual¿s social role early in development influence neuroanatomy across the life span? Third, how does emotional brain neuroanatomy mediate the impact of social life on emotional processing? The goal of the proposed work is to answer these questions. To that end, I will first characterize individual¿s social roles using formal social network analyses. Such analyses provide information about the number of social connections an individual has, but also about what specific role the individual plays in that network. Individuals will then undergo neuroimaging in order to characterize the structure and functional connectivity neuroanatomical regions of interest. They will also complete testing to characterize their emotional processing. I will first examine whether social role influences brain neuroanatomy and emotional processing using a cross sectional study with adult subjects (Specific Aims 1, 3). Next I will examine whether social roles early in development influence neuroanatomy and the capacity for developing new social relationships across a critical developmental period (childhood through young adulthood) using an experimental longitudinal study design (Specific Aim 2, 3). Together, these data will allow for the evaluation of the impact of social roles on emotional processing as mediated by neuroanatomy across the life-span.