Characterizing the neural mechanisms of social connection

项目摘要 社会孤立与一系列负面结果有关，包括抑郁症和早期抑郁症的发病率增加。 mortality.至关重要的是，社会孤立可能导致适应不良的选择，如使用药物作为应对策略 负面影响。重要的是，与他人的感知联系可以减轻 隔离，可能减轻适应不良的应对机制（即，物质使用）。事实上， 与其他人一起满足基本的幸福需求，并与提高社会回报价值有关。 奖励相关的神经回路中所反映的经验。尽管啮齿类动物的证据表明， 由于社会交往减少了物质使用的可能性，因此在治疗方面仍然存在关键差距 帮助依赖药物的人建立健康的社会关系。这在很大程度上是 由于：1）药物滥用的神经生物学模型尚未广泛整合社会背景; 2）动态 社会互动很难在实验室环境中进行研究; 3）目前缺乏对机制的理解 社会奖励如何促进社会关系的发展。 我们的建议旨在描述社会联系形成的机制，作为 了解它们如何帮助改变适应不良的行为。我们认为，一个关键的方面，以形成一个 社会联系正在发展一种对现实的共同解释，在这种解释中，个人开始分享类似的 观点和偏好。我们通过3个目标来测试这个想法，首先描述基本机制， 使用生态上有效的刺激的潜在的社会奖励寻求行为（例如，上传个人照片 社交媒体）。然后，我们使用自然主义范式来创造共享的情感体验，并检查角色 在目标2中，沟通共同偏好形成社会联系。最后，我们认识到， 偏好也可能使行为难以改变，如果这种偏好收敛于适应不良， 比如尼古丁的使用。我们在目标3中通过研究社会底层的机制来探索这一想法。 尼古丁依赖人群中的奖励寻求，同时还考虑共享偏好如何影响 行为总之，拟议的研究将使用生态有效的刺激和自然主义的范式， 描述了社会奖励如何形成社会奖励寻求的机制，社会奖励是共享偏好的信号 行为，促进社会联系，并可能减轻（或促进）尼古丁使用者对物质的渴望。 重要的是，这项工作将为今后研究社会动态作用的建议奠定基础。 与药物滥用有关

Project Summary Social isolation is associated with a host of negative outcomes including increased rates of depression and early mortality. Critically, social isolation can lead to maladaptive choices such as substance use as a coping strategy for negative affect. Importantly, perceived connection with others can ameliorate adverse consequences of isolation, potentially mitigating maladaptive coping mechanisms (i.e., substance use). Indeed, close connections with others satisfy basic needs of belongingness and are associated with enhancing the reward value of social experiences as reflected in reward-related neural circuits. While evidence in rodents suggests that the potential for social interaction decreases the likelihood of substance use, there remains a critical gap in treatment approaches in enabling substance-dependent individuals to form healthy social connections. This is in large part due to: 1) neurobiological models of substance abuse have yet to widely integrate social context; 2) dynamic social interactions are difficult to study in laboratory settings; and 3) a current lack of mechanistic understanding how social rewards facilitate the development of social bonds. Our proposal aims to delineate the mechanisms underlying the formation of social bonds as a precursor to understanding how they may help sway maladaptive behaviors. We suggest that a critical aspect to forming a social connection is developing a shared interpretation of reality, in which individuals begin to share similar perspectives and preferences. We test this idea across 3 aims by first characterizing the basic mechanisms underlying social reward-seeking behaviors using ecologically-valid stimuli (e.g., posting personal photos on social media). We then use a naturalistic paradigm to create shared affective experiences and examine the role of communicating shared preferences in forming social bonds in Aim 2. Finally, we recognize that shared preferences may also make it difficult for behavior to change if such preferences converge on maladaptive behaviors such as nicotine use. We explore this idea in Aim 3 by examining mechanisms underlying social reward-seeking in a nicotine-dependent population, while also considering how shared preferences may impact behavior. Taken together, the proposed studies will use ecologically-valid stimuli and naturalistic paradigms to delineate the mechanisms of how social rewards, which signal shared preferences, shape social reward-seeking behaviors, facilitate social connection and may mitigate (or promote) cravings for substances in nicotine users. Importantly, this work will lay the groundwork for future proposals to investigate the role of the dynamics of social connection in substance abuse.