Psychological and Socio-Environmental Determinants of Sleep and Neurocognitive Function (PEDS)

自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)是一组复杂的神经发育障碍，影响社会 互惠、交流和重复的、刻板的行为。流行病学协会将分娩联系起来 然而，通过剖腹产(CS)增加患ASD的风险，对人类的观察性研究无法 以确定这种关联中的潜在因果关系。因此，我们将使用社会上的一夫一妻制 草原田鼠(田鼠)。草原田鼠是为数不多的能够让我们 研究选择性社交依恋的神经生物学基础，这种依恋对人类健康和 幸福。我们的初步证据表明，通过CS分娩的草原田鼠无法结成伴侣 成年人的偏好，这表明他们在选择性社会依恋方面存在一些缺陷。以前的工作有 研究表明，CS会影响应激反应，延迟社交技能，降低社交自尊 婴儿期/儿童期，但几乎没有在人类中进行过相关研究来检验CS是如何 可能会对以后的社会行为产生影响。因此，我们将调查：CS是如何影响社会行为的 在草原田鼠的整个发育过程中，CS的交付是否影响功能和结构 大脑内的连通性，以及催产素和/或出生时缺氧对这种关系的贡献 CS分娩和随后的神经发育之间的关系。我们假设通过扰乱催产素 CS分娩在出生时发出信号，使发育中的大脑更容易受到缺氧的影响，这反过来又会侮辱 大脑发育的方式使新生儿容易患自闭症。

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a complex set of neurodevelopmental disorders, affecting social reciprocity, communication and repetitive, stereotyped behaviors. Epidemiological associations link delivery by cesarean section (CS) with increased risk of ASD, however, observational studies in humans are unable to determine the potential for causality in this association. Therefore, we will use the socially monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). The prairie vole is one of the few animal models that allows us to examine the neurobiology underlying selective social attachments, which are important to human health and wellbeing. Our preliminary evidence suggests that prairie voles delivered via CS fail to form partner preferences as adults, which indicates some deficit in their selective social attachment. Previous work has indicated that CS delivery can affect stress reactivity, delay social skills, and reduce social self-esteem in infancy / childhood, but virtually no relevant studies have been conducted in humans to examine how CS might impact social behavior in later life. Therefore, we will investigate: how social behavior is affected by CS delivery throughout development in prairie voles, whether CS delivery affects functional and structural connectivity within the brain, and the contributions of oxytocin and/or hypoxia at birth to the relationship between CS delivery and subsequent neurodevelopment. We hypothesize that by disrupting oxytocin signaling at birth, CS delivery makes the developing brain more vulnerable to hypoxia, which in turn insults brain development in ways that predispose the newborn towards ASDs.