Hormonal regulation of sensory processing during parental care

项目摘要/摘要 当我们成为父母后，我们听到声音的方式会改变吗？这项提议将对荷尔蒙是否 参与父母行为会影响父母后代听觉线索处理的神经回路。 人们早就知道，后代的感官暗示，如婴儿的哭声，会引发必要和适当的 来自父母的行为反应。大脑如何对这些声音进行编码以引发行为反应 还没有被很好地理解。产后情绪障碍(PPMD)的男性和女性表现出较低的神经反应 婴儿哭泣，随后表现出较少或受损的父母行为，导致不利的儿童健康和 经济成果。了解父母的大脑回路如何能够检测和反应后代 在特定的时间窗口(即，育儿)期间的感官提示对于开发新的干预措施是必不可少的 有效治疗与PPMD相关的独特损害。 荷尔蒙在调节父母行为方面起着至关重要的作用。然而，我们对荷尔蒙如何 影响后代对感官信息的感知。这项提议将检验这样一个假设： 催乳素是一种同时参与母性和父性行为的激素，它与听觉回路相互作用 改变后代线索的感官处理，以引起父母的行为。利用我的专业知识 关于催乳素在父母照料中的作用，我的目标是获得新的研究技能来记录和操纵感觉神经元， 这将有助于为我的研究生涯发展新的研究方法和方向。 在K99阶段，我将使用体内高密度电生理学来确定神经的模式 在整个发育阶段对乞讨电话的反应。然后我会用体内的光遗传学来操纵 听觉反应，以确定听觉处理对父母行为的因果关系。在R00期间 阶段，我将使用这些方法结合催乳素信号的药物操作来测试 一种假说，即催乳素调节这些神经对后代听觉提示的反应，以诱导 适当的父母行为。这项研究将作为开展更大规模研究的起点 研究多种感觉系统(例如，视觉、躯体感觉)如何与 神经内分泌系统来调节父母的照顾。对以下因素、网络和细胞类型的调查 在健康父母中调节父母的听觉反应将给出必要的洞察，了解这些 患有产后情绪障碍的父母的缺陷可以得到改善。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Does the way we hear sounds change when we become parents? This proposal will causally test if hormones involved in parental behavior affect the neural circuitry underlying offspring auditory cue processing in parents. It has long been known that offspring sensory cues, such as baby cries, elicit the necessary and appropriate behavioral responses from parents. How these sounds are encoded by the brain to elicit behavioral responses is not well understood. Men and women with postpartum mood disorders (PPMD) show lower neural responses to infant cries and subsequently display less or impaired parental behavior, leading to adverse child health and economical outcomes. Understanding how parental brain circuits are able to detect and respond to offspring sensory cues during a specific window of time (i.e., parenting) is imperative for developing novel interventions to effectively treat the unique impairments associated with PPMDs. Hormones play a crucial role in regulating parental behavior. However, we know little about how hormones affect the perception of sensory information from offspring. This proposal will test the hypothesis that prolactin, a hormone involved in both maternal and paternal behavior, interacts with auditory circuits to alter the sensory processing of offspring cues, in order to elicit parental behavior. Leveraging my expertise in prolactin’s role in parental care, I aim to gain new research skills to record and manipulate sensory neurons, which will facilitate the development of new approaches and directions of investigation for my research career. During the K99 phase I will use in vivo high-density electrophysiology to determine the patterns of neural responses to begging calls across the developmental period. I will then use in vivo optogenetics to manipulate auditory responses in order to establish causality of auditory processing on parental behavior. During the R00 phase, I will use these methods in combination with pharmacological manipulations of prolactin signaling to test the hypothesis that prolactin modulates these neural responses to offspring auditory cues in order to elicit appropriate parental behaviors. This research will serve as a launching point to develop a larger research program that investigates how multiple sensory systems (e.g., visual, somatosensory) interact together with the neuroendocrine system to regulate parental care. Investigations into the factors, networks, and cell-types that regulate parental auditory responsiveness in healthy parents will give the necessary insights into how these deficits can be ameliorated in parents with postpartum mood disorders.