THE NEURAL BASIS OF PAIR-BONDING IN FEMALE TITI MONKEYS

项目摘要 社会行为的神经生物学是至关重要的，不仅为了了解我们自己的基本 生物学，但也适用于社会行为受损的情况（例如，自闭症谱系障碍和 精神分裂症）。社会支持对长期健康的影响现在基本上是无可争议的; 孤独感也越来越被人们所认识。例如，最近的一项荟萃分析发现， 关系导致冠心病风险增加29%，中风风险增加32%。我们 像其他许多人一样，我之前对灵长类动物社会纽带的神经生物学的研究主要集中在雄性身上。 女性是一个重要的和研究不足的人群，当涉及到精神疾病的社会， 行为和灵长类动物的配对研究。女性也更有可能被诊断为情感型 精神障碍，如重度抑郁症，可能严重低估了社会风险因素，如 作为社会压力。在这里，我们提出了一系列的调查，以神经生物学基础的依恋， 雌性提提猴，一种社会性一夫一妻制的新大陆灵长类动物，使用药理学和功能成像 来解决社会性的基本问题。我们的首要假设是， 从对父母的依恋到对配偶的依恋的转变，可能依赖于神经肽受体功能， 特别是神经肽催产素和加压素。我们将在青少年中研究这些问题， 成年雌性提提猴我们将使用行为药理学来研究催产素的作用， 加压素对依恋的基本特征（对伴侣/父母的偏好， 分离时的痛苦和社会缓冲）。我们使用功能成像来检查 在提提猴的催产素或加压素受体区域，葡萄糖的摄取， 操纵，包括存在或不存在的附件图。最后，我们将使用分子 技术来检查在整个过程中的催产素和加压素受体甲基化的变化， 成对结合、分离和缓冲应力。

Project Summary The neurobiology of social behavior is of crucial importance not only in order to understand our own basic biology, but also for cases in which social behavior is impaired (for example, autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia). The effects of social support on long-term health are now largely undisputed; and the dangers of loneliness are also increasingly well-recognized. For instance, a recent meta-analysis found that poor social relationships led to 29% increased risk for coronary heart disease, and a 32% increased risk for stroke. Our own prior investigations on the neurobiology of primate social bonds, like many others, have focused on males. Females represent a crucial and under-studied population when it comes to both psychiatric disorders of social behavior and studies of primate pair-bonding. Females are also more likely to be diagnosed with affective disorders, such as major depressive disorder, which may have critically understudied social risk factors, such as social stress. Here we propose a series of investigations into the neurobiological basis of attachment in female titi monkeys, a socially monogamous New World primate, using pharmacology and functional imaging to address fundamental questions about the substrates for sociality. Our overarching hypothesis is that the transition from attachment to parents to attachment to a pair-mate, may rely on neuropeptide receptor function, particularly the neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin. We will study these questions in adolescent and adult female titi monkeys. We will use behavioral pharmacology to investigate the effects of oxytocin and vasopressin manipulation on the fundamental traits of an attachment (preference for the partner/parent, distress upon separation, and social buffering). We use functional imaging to examine dynamic changes in glucose uptake in areas that we know to have oxytocin or vasopressin receptors in titi monkeys, in response to manipulations including the presence or absence of an attachment figure. Finally, we will use molecular techniques to examine changes in methylation of the oxytocin and vasopressin receptors across the course of pair-bonding, separation, and buffering from stress.