Breaking bonds in prairie voles

在人类中，与伴侣、亲戚或朋友的社会依恋是一种保护性缓冲， 生活压力的许多负面后果，而缺乏社会依恋会导致 严重病理，包括烦躁不安、焦虑、抑郁、睡眠障碍、心血管 问题和免疫系统缺陷。在社会草原田鼠，急性和慢性社会 隔离以及伴侣分离会诱发焦虑和抑郁样行为， 应激反应，并改变几个神经化学系统的活动，包括催产素能 系统来自我们小组和其他人的数据表明，催产素（OT）不仅参与了 这种物种配对键的形成，也是对社会孤立/伴侣的反应 分离以及压力反应的社会缓冲。在本提案中，我们将核实 总的假设，打破债券在田鼠改变OT电路投射从 下丘脑室旁核到丘脑底核（占OT投射到核的90 在草原上，雄性和雌性的社会行为都受到了负面影响 田鼠

In humans, social attachment with partners, relatives, or friends act as a protective buffer against many negative consequences of life stress, whereas lack of social attachments can lead to serious pathologies including dysphoria, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular problems, and immune system deficits. In the social prairie voles, acute and chronic social isolation as well as partner separation induce anxiety and depression-like behaviors, enhance stress response, and alter activities of several neurochemical systems, including the oxytocinergic system. Data from our group and others have shown that oxytocin (OT) is involved not only in the formation of pair bonds in this specie, but also in the response to social isolation/ partner separation as well as social buffering of stress responses. In this proposal, we will verify the overall hypothesis that breaking bonds in voles alter the OT circuitry projecting from the hypothalamic PVN to the nucleus accumbens (which represents 90% of OT projections to nucleus accumbens) and leads to negative consequences on social behaviors in male and female prairie voles.