Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine and Social Attachment

伏核多巴胺和社会依恋

• 批准号: 6659871
• 负责人: Brandon Aragona
• 金额: $ 2.83万
• 依托单位: FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-09-15 至
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6659871
• 关键词: autoradiography; behavior test; behavioral /social science research tag; biological models; brain mapping; dopamine; dopamine agonists; dopamine antagonists; dopamine receptor; ethology; high performance liquid chromatography; immunocytochemistry; male; microdialysis; neural transmission; neuropharmacology; nucleus accumbens; predoctoral investigator; preference; protein structure function; psychobiology; sex behavior; sex partner; social behavior; vole

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dopamine is implicated in human diseases associated with social deficits, such as autism, and dopaminergic drugs are frequently used to treat symptoms of these diseases. However, very little is known about how dopamine may regulate social affiliation among mammals. The prairie vole is an ideal animal model for the neurobiological investigation of social affiliation because males and females form long-term pair bonds. Pair bonding is assessed by the partner preference test, a reliable behavioral index in which the subject spends preferentially more time with its familiar mate versus a conspecific stranger. This proposal will test the hypothesis that mating induced partner preferences are facilitated by dopamine released during mating. My preliminary experiments show that a non-specific dopamine receptor antagonist (either i.p. or microinjected into nucleus accumbens) blocked mating-induced partner preferences and a non-specific dopamine receptor agonist induced this behavior in the absence of mating. I propose to identify the dopamine receptor subtype in the nucleus accumbens that is important for pair bonding by using receptor specific drugs to manipulate partner preference formation. Since it is unlikely that dopamine acts at only one central location to influence pair bonding, I will then map the dopamine system in the male prairie vole and test if mating alters dopamine systems. Finally, I will examine if mating increases dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Together these studies will further our understanding of how dopamine is involved in mammalian social attachment.

描述（由申请人提供）：多巴胺与与社会缺陷相关的人类疾病有关，例如自闭症，多巴胺能药物经常用于治疗这些疾病的症状。 然而，人们对多巴胺如何调节哺乳动物之间的社会关系知之甚少。草原田鼠是社会归属神经生物学研究的理想动物模型，因为雄性和雌性形成长期的配对关系。配对关系是通过伴侣偏好测试来评估的，这是一种可靠的行为指数，其中受试者优先花更多时间与熟悉的伴侣相处，而不是与同种陌生人相处。该提案将检验以下假设：交配过程中释放的多巴胺促进了交配诱导的伴侣偏好。我的初步实验表明，非特异性多巴胺受体拮抗剂（腹腔注射或显微注射到伏隔核中）可以阻断交配诱导的伴侣偏好，而非特异性多巴胺受体激动剂在没有交配的情况下诱导这种行为。我建议通过使用受体特异性药物来操纵伴侣偏好的形成，来识别伏隔核中的多巴胺受体亚型，这对伴侣关系很重要。由于多巴胺不太可能仅在一个中心位置发挥作用来影响配对结合，因此我将绘制雄性草原田鼠的多巴胺系统图，并测试交配是否会改变多巴胺系统。最后，我将检查交配是否会增加伏隔核中的多巴胺释放。这些研究将进一步加深我们对多巴胺如何参与哺乳动物社会依恋的理解。