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Principal Investigator: Michael Moshe Yartsev
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $409,772
Funding agency: National Institute of Mental Health
PROJECT SUMMARY
Social relationships develop between individuals with a social network. Difficulties in mediating social
relationships with other individuals is strongly associated with severe mental disorders ranging from
depression, chronic stress, autism and other. Thus, understanding the neural underpinning of social
relationships is paramount. To gain insight that would inform of real-life behavior, I propose to study the
nervous system under real-life conditions in which social interactions in humans and animals typically occur. In
particular, I focus on the fact that social interactions typically involve multiple participants, employ the usage of
a flexible repertoire of communication signals, and occur between individuals of varying social bonds and
personality traits. Furthermore, social relationships evolve over prolonged periods of time in a dynamic fashion.
In this proposal we focus on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). We do so because activity in this area has
previously been strongly associated with social behaviors across a wide range of mammalian species,
including humans. However, much less is known about the neural computations in the ACC with respect to
social relationships, especially during real-life and multi-dimensional social conditions. To do so, we use the
Egyptian fruit bat, a highly social, long-lived mammal that is accustom to group living and where individuals
engage in relationships that extend over many months/years. We further develop advanced behavioral
measurements that allow us to monitor the social interactions of individuals within our colonies continuously
and characterize their social relationships between group members. To study the neural circuits that underlie
social relationships we develop wireless neurophysiological tools that enable monitoring neural activity from
entire colonies of bats simultaneously at cellular and millisecond resolutions (electrophysiology) and over
prolonged periods of time (calcium imaging). This novel approach allows us to consider the true complexity of
real-life social interactions and consider the social bonds between the individuals, the dynamic structure of the
social relationships as well as the individual variability in personality traits. Specifically, we aim to achieve the
following aims: (1) We start by describing the basic neural dynamics in the ACC during semi-natural, dyadic,
social interactions and communication. (2) We next describe the ACC neural dynamics during interaction
occurring within real-life, stable, social networks while considering the relationships between individuals (3) We
describe the evolution of ACC neural dynamic in parallel to the dynamical changes that occur in real-life social
networks. (4) We use optogenetics tools to disrupt neural activity in the ACC during group social interactions in
order to assess its causal role in real-life social relationships with other individuals. Combined, these
experiments will provide a detailed description of ACC neural computations underlying the mediation of social
relationships within a social network. In doing so, we aim for these results to provide important insight that
could be used in clinical future application in patients.
Terms: <ASD><Address><Animals><Anterior><Area><Autism><Autistic Disorder><Bats><Behavior><Behavioral><Biologic Models><Biological Models><Brain><Brain Nervous System><Calcium><Cell Communication and Signaling><Cell Signaling><Chiroptera><Chronic stress><Clinical><Communication><Complex><Data><Development><Dimensions><Disabled Persons><Disabled Population><Disease><Disorder><Dysfunction><Early Infantile Autism><Electrophysiology><Electrophysiology (science)><Encephalon><Ethology><Evolution><Flying body movement><Fruit><Functional disorder><Future><Handicapped><Human><Image><Impairment><Individual><Infantile Autism><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Intracellular Communication and Signaling><Kanner's Syndrome><Life><Light><Mammalia><Mammals><Measurement><Mediating><Mediation><Mental Depression><Mental disorders><Mental health disorders><Methods><Model System><Modern Man><Monitor><Msec><Nature><Negotiating><Negotiation><Nerve Cells><Nerve Unit><Nervous System><Neural Cell><Neurobiology><Neurocyte><Neurologic Body System><Neurologic Organ System><Neurons><Neurophysiology / Electrophysiology><Participant><Patients><People with Disabilities><Personality Traits><Persons with Disabilities><Photoradiation><Physical distancing><Physiopathology><Population><Psychiatric Disease><Psychiatric Disorder><Research><Resolution><Role><Shapes><Signal Transduction><Signal Transduction Systems><Signaling><Social Behavior><Social Conditions><Social Distance><Social Interaction><Social Network><Societal Conditions><Techniques><Technology><Testing><Time><Translating><autism spectral disorder><autism spectrum disorder><autistic spectrum disorder><behavior measurement><behavioral measure><behavioral measurement><biological signal transduction><chronic mental illness><cingulate cortex><depression><design><designing><developmental><dietary fruit><disabled individual><disabled people><electrophysiological><experiment><experimental research><experimental study><experiments><flexibility><flexible><flying><imaging><improved><individual heterogeneity><individual variability><individual variation><individuals with disabilities><insight><interventional strategy><member><mental illness><millisecond><neural><neural circuit><neural circuitry><neural mechanism><neural network><neurobiological><neurobiological mechanism><neurocircuitry><neuromechanism><neuronal><neurophysiological><neurophysiology><new approaches><novel><novel approaches><novel strategies><novel strategy><optogenetics><pathophysiology><persistent mental illness><prevent><preventing><psychiatric illness><psychological disorder><resolutions><response><serious mental disorder><serious mental illness><severe mental disorder><severe mental illness><social><social attachment><social bonding><social communication><social group><social influence><social relationships><social role><social structural><social structure><socio-structural><sociobehavior><sociobehavioral><sociostructural><synaptic circuit><synaptic circuitry><tool><wireless>