Affective and Genomic Mediators of Sustained Behavior Change

描述（由申请人提供）：人们的日常行为选择-包括如何应对压力和是否进行体力活动-积累和复合，以确定他们的健康风险和预期寿命。事实上，在美国，每五个过早死亡的人中就有两个与不健康的、最终可以改变的行为选择有关。尽管改善健康的意图是好的，但人们改变中年生活方式的尝试往往失败，为晚年健康限制和昂贵的慢性病铺平了道路。这项研究的总体目标是研究积极情绪如何改变生物系统，最终加强持续的积极行为改变。一种创新的生活方式改变的螺旋上升模型将积极情绪的科学与新兴的社会基因组学领域相结合，描述了积极情绪可能影响基因表达的途径，以巩固持续的行为改变。具体来说，我们认为积极的情绪会触发外周生物学变化，从而改变炎症相关基因的表达，从而越来越多地隐含地加强健康行为。两项研究-跨越实验室和现场-通过针对三个具体目标测试这种新模式。这些目标是：（1）鉴定调节健康行为与其积极情绪产出之间联系的外周生物资源和遗传多态性;（2）鉴定调节积极情绪增加与炎症相关基因表达变化之间拟议关联的生物信号传导途径;以及（3）研究积极情绪的增加影响炎症相关基因表达、持续健康行为和相关健康结果变化的途径。研究1是对照实验室研究，其调查候选外周生物资源（即，催产素、呼吸性窦性心律不齐、血压和C反应蛋白）和炎症相关的遗传多态性调节健康行为的积极情绪产量，从而促进健康生活方式改变的上升螺旋。研究2补充和扩展了这项实验室研究，通过使用纵向，随机，双盲，安慰剂对照的田间实验，重复测量外周生物学和基因组标记物，测试生活方式改变的螺旋上升模型的全部范围。这种严格和有效的纵向设计在人类社会基因组学研究中是前所未有的，可以阐明健康行为和生物健康如何相互加强。这项转化研究计划旨在建立一个统一的行为改变科学，重塑公共卫生干预措施，并释放隐藏的机会，以促进健康长寿。 公共卫生相关性：不健康的行为选择会导致代价高昂的老年慢性病和过早死亡。因此，持续的积极行为改变对促进健康长寿至关重要，但仍然难以捉摸。了解积极情绪如何改变基因表达的方式，隐含地加强长期坚持积极的健康行为，需要解锁循证健康干预措施，以促进健康，节省金钱和生命。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): People's day-to-day behavioral choices - including how to respond to stress and whether to be physically active - accumulate and compound to set their health risks and life expectancies. Indeed, two of every five premature deaths in the U.S. can be linked to unhealthy and ultimately modifiable behavioral choices. Despite good intentions to improve their health, people's attempts at midlife lifestyle change often fail, paving the way to late-life health limitations and costly chronic conditions. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to investigate how positive emotions alter biological systems in ways that ultimately reinforce sustained positive behavior change. An innovative upward spiral model of lifestyle change integrates the science of positive emotions with the emerging field of social genomics to describe pathways through which positive emotions may influence gene expression to undergird sustained behavior change. Specifically, we propose that positive emotions trigger peripheral biological changes that alter inflammation-related gene expression in ways that increasingly and implicitly reinforce wellness behaviors. Two studies - spanning laboratory and field - test this new model by targeting three Specific Aims. These aims are: (1) to identify peripheral biological resources and genetic polymorphisms that moderate the link between wellness behaviors and their positive emotion yield; (2) to identify the biological signaling pathways that mediate the proposed association between increases in positive emotions and changes in inflammation-related gene expression; and (3) to investigate the pathways through which increases in positive emotions influence changes in inflammation-related gene expression, sustained wellness behaviors, and associated health outcomes. Study 1 is a controlled laboratory study that investigates whether candidate peripheral biological resources (i.e., oxytocin, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, blood pressure, and C-reactive protein) and inflammation-related genetic polymorphisms moderate the positive emotion yield of wellness behaviors and thereby fuel upward spirals of healthy lifestyle change. Study 2 complements and extends this laboratory study, by testing the full scope of the upward spiral model of lifestyle change using a longitudinal, randomized, dual-blind, placebo-controlled field experiment with repeated measures of peripheral biological and genomic markers. This rigorous and validated longitudinal design is unprecedented in human social genomics research and can illuminate how wellness behaviors and biological health mutually reinforce one another. This program of translational research stands to forge a unified science of behavior change, reshape public health interventions, and unlock hidden opportunities to promote healthy longevity. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Unhealthy behavioral choices contribute to costly late life chronic diseases and premature death. Sustained positive behavior change is thus vital to promote healthy longevity, yet remains elusive. Understanding how positive emotions alter gene expression in ways that implicitly reinforce long-term adherence to positive health behaviors is needed to unlock evidence-based health interventions to promote health and save money and lives.