PEPTIDE MODULATION OF AFFILIATIVE AND ASOCIAL BEHAVIOR

亲和和社交行为的肽调节

基本信息

批准号：
6259494
负责人：
JAMES L GOODSON
金额：
$ 25.85万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2000
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2000-12-15 至 2005-11-30
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

Neuropeptides of the vasopressin-oxytocin family play important roles in both affiliative and asocial behaviors across a broad range of vertebrate taxa. Similarly, recent findings in human clinical populations (personality disorder, autism, depression) indicate that impairments of sociality may be produced at least in part by dysfunctions of these peptide systems. The relevance of comparative data for human populations is further underscored by the observation that across vertebrate groups, including humans, behavioral functions and major features of vasopressin-oxytocin brain distributions are conserved. Nonetheless, vasopressin-oxytocin systems exhibit remarkably plastic features as well. A variety of data now suggest the hypothesis advanced here that the expression of specific and integrated patterns of behavior (e.g., behavior typical or specific to an individual's sex, social tactics, and species' social structure) is produced in part by the functional lability of vasopressin-oxytocin systems. However, few experiments have explicitly tested for sex differences in the modulation of similar behaviors, and in most species, only a limited range of social behaviors have been examined. Proposed experiments will employ intracerebroventricular infusions of vasopressin- and oxytocin-like peptides in both male and female songbirds to determine neuropeptide functions for a broad , range of behaviors, including aggression, courtship, sexual behavior, partner preference (typical of monogamous pair-bonds), and non-sexual affiliation. The diversity of social structures in songbirds allows specific aspects of behavior to be examined while holding potential confounds constant; our previous experiments have shown that neuropeptides modulate male aggression differently in colonial vs. territorial songbird species (i.e., highly gregarious vs. relatively asocial). Experiments proposed here extend these species comparisons to females and to a broader range of social behaviors. Finally, neuroanatomical techniques (immunocytochemistry for immediate early gene expression and peptides; quantitative autoradiography) will be used to establish neural bases for the previously-identified divergence in peptide function between affiliative and asocial species.

加压素-催产素家族的神经肽在多种脊椎动物类群的亲和行为和反社会行为中发挥着重要作用。同样，最近在人类临床人群（人格障碍、自闭症、抑郁症）中的发现表明，社交性损害可能至少部分是由这些肽系统的功能障碍造成的。观察结果进一步强调了人类比较数据的相关性，即在包括人类在内的脊椎动物群体中，行为功能和加压素-催产素大脑分布的主要特征是保守的。尽管如此，加压素-催产素系统也表现出显着的可塑性特征。现在的各种数据表明这里提出的假设，即特定和综合的行为模式的表达（例如，典型的或特定于个人性别、社会策略和物种社会结构的行为）部分是由功能不稳定性产生的。加压素-催产素系统。然而，很少有实验明确测试相似行为调节中的性别差异，并且在大多数物种中，仅检查了有限范围的社会行为。拟议的实验将在雄性和雌性鸣禽的脑室内注射加压素和催产素样肽，以确定神经肽在广泛的行为中的功能，包括攻击性、求爱、性行为、伴侣偏好（典型的一夫一妻制配对关系），以及非性别关系。鸣禽社会结构的多样性允许在保持潜在混杂因素不变的情况下检查行为的特定方面；我们之前的实验表明，神经肽对殖民地鸣禽和领地鸣禽物种（即高度群居与相对不合群）的雄性攻击性调节不同。这里提出的实验将这些物种比较扩展到女性和更广泛的社会行为。最后，神经解剖技术（用于立即早期基因表达和肽的免疫细胞化学；定量放射自显影术）将用于为先前确定的亲缘物种和非社会物种之间肽功能的差异建立神经基础。