Dopamine and Exploration in Development

多巴胺与发展探索

• 批准号: 6754960
• 负责人: GREGORY A GOODWIN
• 金额: $ 20.75万
• 依托单位: SKIDMORE COLLEGE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-05-01 至 2007-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6754960
• 关键词: aging; behavior test; behavioral /social science research tag; chordate locomotion; corpus striatum; dopamine; ethology; high performance liquid chromatography; histology; laboratory rat; microdialysis; motivation; neurohormones; neuropsychological tests; neuropsychology; neuroregulation; neurotransmitter transport; nucleus accumbens; socioenvironment; weaning

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mammalian newborns maintain proximity to their parents or a home nest for care and protection but as they mature and gain independence, they must explore their environment to learn of its resources and dangers. This transition from dependence to independence is facilitated by the emergence of a motive to explore novel places during weaning. This transition is critical to adult independence in many species and a failure to complete it may result in difficulty negotiating unfamiliar environments in adulthood. Indeed, studies of human infants have shown that difficulty coping with parental separation can predict adult disorders like agoraphobia and panic disorder, disorders associated with excessive anxiety about leaving a familiar place. The neurohormonal factors that are responsible for the developmental emergence of the exploratory motive, a critical component of the transition to adult independence, are poorly understood. This research proposal investigates the developmental emergence of this motive in the rat. The central hypothesis of this proposal is based on several findings. First, research in adult rats has shown that behavioral responses to novel places are dependent on nucleus accumbens (NAc) dopamine activity. Second, the motive to leave the home nest and explore novel places emerges during the third postnatal week. The central hypothesis of this proposal is that an age-dependent enhancement of novelty-evoked accumbens dopamine activity facilitates exploratory behavior during the third postnatal week. To test this hypothesis studies are proposed which will 1) determine whether novel contexts evoke an age-dependent increase in NAc dopamine activity and 2) determine whether age-dependent changes in exploratory behavior are dependent on NAc dopamine release.

描述（由申请人提供）：哺乳动物新生儿会与父母或巢穴保持接近，以得到照顾和保护，但随着它们成熟并获得独立，它们必须探索环境以了解其资源和危险。断奶期间探索新地方的动机的出现促进了从依赖到独立的转变。这种转变对于许多物种的成年独立至关重要，如果未能完成这一转变，可能会导致成年后难以适应陌生的环境。事实上，对人类婴儿的研究表明，应对父母分离的困难可以预测成年后的疾病，如广场恐惧症和恐慌症，这些疾病与离开熟悉的地方过度焦虑有关。探索性动机是向成人独立过渡的关键组成部分，而导致探索性动机发展出现的神经激素因素却知之甚少。本研究计划调查了大鼠中这种动机的发育出现。该提案的中心假设基于多项发现。首先，对成年大鼠的研究表明，对新地方的行为反应取决于伏隔核 (NAc) 多巴胺活性。其次，离开家去探索新地方的动机在产后第三周出现。该提议的中心假设是，新奇诱发的伏隔核多巴胺活性的年龄依赖性增强促进了产后第三周的探索行为。为了检验这一假设，提出了一些研究，这些研究将 1) 确定新的环境是否会引起 NAc 多巴胺活性的年龄依赖性增加，2) 确定探索行为的年龄依赖性变化是否依赖于 NAc 多巴胺的释放。