Insular Cortex and Social Affect

摘要 涉及社会行为的障碍，如自闭症谱系障碍，越来越普遍，但 这些疾病的病理生理学基础使研究人员感到困惑，目前的治疗方法令人遗憾， 不足岛叶皮层与正常和病理性社会情感过程密切相关 比如情感识别和移情。岛叶皮层接受来自杏仁核的主要输入， 它可能是一个整合社会和情感信息的场所，导致社会方法的调节， 通过岛叶投射到丘脑核的回避行为。利用一个简单的啮齿动物社会行为 在一项老鼠在痛苦中表现出接近同类行为的测试中，我们假设杏仁核 神经元到神经元回路介导压力个体的社会反应。我们将使用特定的道 描述性和机械性方法来确定胰岛投射杏仁核的必要性和充分性 神经元和投射神经元在社会决策中的作用。使用活动依赖遗传学 岛叶皮层神经元的标记，我们将解决是否岛叶依赖的方法和回避行为 是由相同或不同的神经元亚群介导的。这项工作将告知新的发展 社会障碍的治疗，并提供社会大脑的主要理论模型的机械测试。

Abstract Disorders involving social behaviors such as autism spectrum disorder are increasingly prevalent, yet the pathophysiological bases for these conditions elude researchers and current treatments are woefully inadequate. The insular cortex is highly implicated in both normal and pathological social affective processes such as emotion recognition and empathy. The insular cortex receives a major input from the amygdala and so it is likely a site of integration for social and emotional information leading to modulation of social approach and avoidance behaviors via insular projections to the nucleus accumbens. Using a simple rodent social behavioral test in which rats display approach behaviors to conspecifics in distress, we hypothesize that an amygdala to insula to accumbens circuit mediates social responses to stressed individuals. We will use tract specific descriptive and mechanistic methods to establish the necessity and sufficiency of insula-projecting amygdala neurons and accumbens-projecting insula neurons in social decision making. Using activity dependent genetic labeling of insular cortex neurons we will address whether insula-dependent approach and avoidant behaviors are mediated by the same or distinct subsets of insula neurons. This work will inform the development of new treatments of social disorders and provide mechanistic tests of major theoretical models of the social brain.