Doctoral Dissertation Research: Impact of early social adversity on brain structure in primates

博士论文研究：早期社会逆境对灵长类动物大脑结构的影响

• 批准号: 2141867
• 负责人: Chet Sherwood
• 金额: $ 3.23万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-03-15 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2141867&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Impact; early

Early social adversity can shape an individual’s brain and behavior across the lifespan, but how these negative experiences exert their influence remains poorly understood. This doctoral dissertation project investigates the relationship between early life environment and aspects of microscopic brain anatomy in two nonhuman primate species. The research leverages existing primate brain collections to advance knowledge about early life stressors, brain, and behavior, and provides broader comparative context for research on similar processes in humans. The project supports graduate research and training in STEM and provides laboratory training and mentoring opportunities to undergraduate students who will have an active role in the research. The investigators plan to share these results with broad audiences via publications, conference talks, and science engagement activities with the public.In early life, young individuals of many species rely on their mothers or caregivers to provide emotional support and to teach them the skills needed to thrive. Past research has indicated that adult animals who experienced separation from their mothers or caregivers at a young age exhibit anatomical differences in their brains such as significant increases in the size of some brain areas and tracts that connect these structures. Notably, the parts of the brain that are most affected make up the reward circuit, which functions to promote learning and motivate behaviors. Consequently, these anatomical differences in the brain could contribute to the development of social and cognitive deficits associated with early social adversity. The main objective of this project is to investigate at the microscopic level how rearing environment in early life can result in long-term structural changes of the reward circuit. The investigators use existing primate brain collections to compare individuals with different rearing histories across two species that are thought to vary in terms of neural plasticity. In each of these brains, the investigators perform analyses to visualize and quantify 1. connections made between neurons, 2. morphology of neurons, and 3. receptor expression of neurons. With these data, the investigators can begin to describe the mechanisms behind changes in brain structure as a result of early social adversity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

早期的社交广告可以塑造个人在整个生命周期中的大脑和行为，但是这些负面的经历如何行使其影响仍然很糟糕。该博士学位论文项目研究了两种非人类灵长类动物的早期生活环境与微观脑解剖学方面之间的关系。该研究利用现有的灵长类动物大脑收集来促进有关早期生活压力，大脑和行为的知识，并为人类类似过程的研究提供了更广泛的比较背景。该项目支持STEM的研究生研究和培训，并为将在研究中发挥积极作用的本科生提供实验室培训和心理机会。调查人员计划通过公众，会议演讲和与公众分享这些结果与广泛的受众分享。过去的研究表明，在年轻时与母亲或照料者分离的成年动物在大脑中揭示了解剖学差异，例如某些大脑区域和连接这些结构的大脑区域和区域的显着增加。值得注意的是，受影响最大的大脑部分构成了奖励电路，这起着促进学习和动机行为的作用。因此，这些大脑的解剖学差异可能有助于社会和认知的发展与早期社会广告相关。该项目的主要目的是在微观层面调查早期生活中的饲养环境如何导致奖励电路的长期结构变化。研究人员使用现有的私人脑收集来比较两个物种的饲养历史不同的人，这些物种被认为在神经可塑性方面有所不同。在每个大脑中，研究人员进行了分析以可视化和量化1。神经元之间建立的连接，2。神经元的形态和3。神经元的受体表达。有了这些数据，研究人员可以开始描述由于早期社交广告而导致的大脑结构变化的机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准来评估值得支持。