Affective and Genomic Mediators of Sustained Behavior Change

描述（由申请人提供）：人们的日常行为选择——包括如何应对压力和是否进行体育锻炼——会累积和复合，从而确定他们的健康风险和预期寿命。事实上，在美国，每五个过早死亡中就有两个与不健康的、最终可以改变的行为选择有关。尽管人们有改善健康的良好意愿，但中年人改变生活方式的尝试往往以失败告终，为晚年健康受限和代价高昂的慢性疾病铺平了道路。这项研究的首要目标是研究积极情绪如何改变生物系统，最终加强持续的积极行为改变。一种创新的生活方式改变的螺旋式上升模型将积极情绪科学与新兴的社会基因组学领域结合起来，描述了积极情绪可能影响基因表达的途径，从而巩固了持续的行为改变。具体来说，我们提出积极情绪触发外围生物变化，改变炎症相关基因表达的方式，越来越多地和隐性地加强健康行为。两项跨越实验室和实地的研究通过三个具体目标来测试这种新模式。这些目标是：(1)确定调节健康行为与其积极情绪产生之间联系的周边生物资源和遗传多态性；(2)确定介导积极情绪增加与炎症相关基因表达变化之间关联的生物信号通路；(3)探讨积极情绪增加对炎症相关基因表达变化、持续健康行为和相关健康结果的影响途径。研究1是一项对照实验室研究，调查候选外周生物资源（即催产素、呼吸性窦性心律失常、血压和c反应蛋白）和炎症相关遗传多态性是否调节健康行为的积极情绪产生，从而推动健康生活方式改变的螺旋式上升。研究2补充并扩展了本实验室研究，通过纵向、随机、双盲、安慰剂对照的现场实验，重复测量周围生物和基因组标记，测试了生活方式改变的螺旋式上升模型的全部范围。这种严格和有效的纵向设计在人类社会基因组学研究中是前所未有的，可以阐明健康行为和生物健康是如何相互加强的。这个转化研究项目旨在形成一种统一的行为改变科学，重塑公共卫生干预措施，并解锁促进健康长寿的隐藏机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): People's day-to-day behavioral choices - including how to respond to stress and whether to be physically active - accumulate and compound to set their health risks and life expectancies. Indeed, two of every five premature deaths in the U.S. can be linked to unhealthy and ultimately modifiable behavioral choices. Despite good intentions to improve their health, people's attempts at midlife lifestyle change often fail, paving the way to late-life health limitations and costly chronic conditions. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to investigate how positive emotions alter biological systems in ways that ultimately reinforce sustained positive behavior change. An innovative upward spiral model of lifestyle change integrates the science of positive emotions with the emerging field of social genomics to describe pathways through which positive emotions may influence gene expression to undergird sustained behavior change. Specifically, we propose that positive emotions trigger peripheral biological changes that alter inflammation-related gene expression in ways that increasingly and implicitly reinforce wellness behaviors. Two studies - spanning laboratory and field - test this new model by targeting three Specific Aims. These aims are: (1) to identify peripheral biological resources and genetic polymorphisms that moderate the link between wellness behaviors and their positive emotion yield; (2) to identify the biological signaling pathways that mediate the proposed association between increases in positive emotions and changes in inflammation-related gene expression; and (3) to investigate the pathways through which increases in positive emotions influence changes in inflammation-related gene expression, sustained wellness behaviors, and associated health outcomes. Study 1 is a controlled laboratory study that investigates whether candidate peripheral biological resources (i.e., oxytocin, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, blood pressure, and C-reactive protein) and inflammation-related genetic polymorphisms moderate the positive emotion yield of wellness behaviors and thereby fuel upward spirals of healthy lifestyle change. Study 2 complements and extends this laboratory study, by testing the full scope of the upward spiral model of lifestyle change using a longitudinal, randomized, dual-blind, placebo-controlled field experiment with repeated measures of peripheral biological and genomic markers. This rigorous and validated longitudinal design is unprecedented in human social genomics research and can illuminate how wellness behaviors and biological health mutually reinforce one another. This program of translational research stands to forge a unified science of behavior change, reshape public health interventions, and unlock hidden opportunities to promote healthy longevity. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Unhealthy behavioral choices contribute to costly late life chronic diseases and premature death. Sustained positive behavior change is thus vital to promote healthy longevity, yet remains elusive. Understanding how positive emotions alter gene expression in ways that implicitly reinforce long-term adherence to positive health behaviors is needed to unlock evidence-based health interventions to promote health and save money and lives.