Resendez Shanna L, Keyes Piper C, Day Jeremy J, Hambro Caely, Austin Curtis J, Maina Francis K, Eidson Lori N, Porter-Stransky Kirsten A, Nevárez Natalie, McLean J William, Kuhnmuench Morgan A, Murphy Anne Z, Mathews Tiffany A, Aragona Brandon J
Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, United States.
Elife. 2016 Jul 2;5:e15325. doi: 10.7554/eLife.15325.
Prairie vole breeder pairs form monogamous pair bonds, which are maintained through the expression of selective aggression toward novel conspecifics. Here, we utilize behavioral and anatomical techniques to extend the current understanding of neural mechanisms that mediate pair bond maintenance. For both sexes, we show that pair bonding up-regulates mRNA expression for genes encoding D1-like dopamine (DA) receptors and dynorphin as well as enhances stimulated DA release within the nucleus accumbens (NAc). We next show that D1-like receptor regulation of selective aggression is mediated through downstream activation of kappa-opioid receptors (KORs) and that activation of these receptors mediates social avoidance. Finally, we also identified sex-specific alterations in KOR binding density within the NAc shell of paired males and demonstrate that this alteration contributes to the neuroprotective effect of pair bonding against drug reward. Together, these findings suggest motivational and valence processing systems interact to mediate the maintenance of social bonds.
草原田鼠繁殖对形成一夫一妻制的伴侣关系，这种关系通过对陌生同种个体表现出选择性攻击行为来维持。在此，我们运用行为学和解剖学技术来拓展当前对介导伴侣关系维持的神经机制的理解。对于雌雄两性，我们发现伴侣关系上调了编码D1样多巴胺（DA）受体和强啡肽的基因的mRNA表达，同时增强了伏隔核（NAc）内受刺激的DA释放。接下来我们表明，D1样受体对选择性攻击行为的调节是通过κ-阿片受体（KORs）的下游激活介导的，并且这些受体的激活介导了社交回避。最后，我们还确定了配对雄性的NAc壳内KOR结合密度的性别特异性改变，并证明这种改变有助于伴侣关系对药物奖赏的神经保护作用。总之，这些发现表明动机和效价加工系统相互作用以介导社会关系的维持。
