Program in Neuroscience, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Rev Neurosci. 2013;24(1):51-60. doi: 10.1515/revneuro-2012-0068.
Social bonds are important for human health and well-being, and a crucial component of these bonds is the ability to maintain a bond once it has been formed. Importantly, although bond maintenance is required for social attachments, very little is known about the neural mechanisms that mediate this behavior. Recently, laboratory studies utilizing the socially monogamous prairie vole (an excellent animal model for the neurobiology of selective social attachment), have allowed the neural correlates of selective social attachment to begin to unfold. These studies have identified that the activation of both motivational and hedonic processing systems, which mediate other natural rewards, is also important for mediating social behaviors that are characteristic of an established pair bond. These social behaviors include appetitive and positive social interactions with a potential mating partner in sexually naïve prairie voles, the avoidance of novel conspecifics (and sometimes aggressive rejection) that characterizes the established pair bond and, finally, an aversion towards partner separation. The following review will discuss how a balance between opposing endogenous opioid systems - positive (mu-opiod receptors) and aversive (kappa-opioid receptors) - provide essential hedonic signaling that guides socially motivated behaviors.
社会联系对人类的健康和幸福至关重要，而这些联系的一个关键组成部分是一旦形成联系，就能够维持这种联系的能力。重要的是，尽管维持联系对于社会依恋是必需的，但对于介导这种行为的神经机制却知之甚少。最近，利用社会性一夫一妻制的草原田鼠（选择性社会依恋神经生物学的极佳动物模型）进行的实验室研究，使得选择性社会依恋的神经相关性开始显现。这些研究表明，调节其他自然奖励的动机和享乐加工系统的激活，对于调节与已建立的配对结合有关的社会行为也很重要。这些社会行为包括在性幼稚的草原田鼠中与潜在的交配伙伴进行的有吸引力的和积极的社交互动，对特征性建立的配对结合的陌生同种个体的回避（有时是攻击性的拒绝），以及对伴侣分离的厌恶。以下综述将讨论相反的内源性阿片系统（积极的（μ-阿片受体）和厌恶的（κ-阿片受体））之间的平衡如何提供必要的享乐信号，从而指导社交动机的行为。
