Neural Networks Supporting Social and Emotional Behavior

众所周知，社会环境影响身心健康。有更多社会关系的人经历的疾病较少，并且在他们生病时恢复得更快和更彻底。了解社会环境影响幸福的机制将有助于开发新的干预措施和治疗病理学，特别是精神病。尽管有越来越多的证据表明社会关系和幸福感之间的关系，但人们对促进这种关系的生物学机制知之甚少。一种可能的机制是社会背景影响大脑解剖结构，从而影响幸福感。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。这些数据表明，社交网络的规模与大脑区域的结构和功能之间存在关系，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回答。首先，是只有社交网络的规模才重要，还是个人的社会角色会影响神经解剖学？第二，个体在发育早期的社会角色如何影响整个生命周期的神经解剖学？第三，情绪脑神经解剖学如何调节社会生活对情绪处理的影响？本研究的目的就是要回答这些问题。为此，我将首先使用正式的社会网络分析来描述个人的社会角色。这种分析提供了关于个人拥有的社会联系数量的信息，也提供了关于个人在该网络中扮演的具体角色的信息。然后，个体将接受神经成像，以表征感兴趣的神经解剖区域的结构和功能连接。他们还将完成测试，以描述他们的情绪处理。我将首先使用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影响大脑神经解剖学和情绪处理。接下来，我将使用实验性纵向研究设计（具体目标2，3）来研究发展早期的社会角色是否会影响神经解剖学以及在关键的发展时期（儿童期到青年期）发展新的社会关系的能力。总之，这些数据将允许评估社会角色对情绪处理的影响，通过神经解剖学介导的整个生命周期。

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.