2009 — 2012 |
Coan, James A |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Neural Mechanisms of Social Emotion Regulation
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although neural systems thought to underlie social bonding and the social regulation of emotion are increasingly well documented in animals and nonhuman primates, the candidate neural mechanisms responsible for these effects in humans remain speculative. Moreover, very little work to date has sought specifically to identify how social affiliation and emotion circuits function in a context that combines social interaction with externally generated emotional stress. In the proposed study, we plan to closely examine human social contact, attachment, and the social regulation of emotion, in vivo, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We will monitor functional brain activity related to physical social contact, physical contact from a familiar other, and the social regulation of both threat responding and empathy, across four conceptually linked studies utilizing 124 participants drawn from a larger (n = 172) normative sample of young adults (ages 24 to 28) whose social behaviors, parental and peer social experiences, and personality characteristics have been assessed annually from the ages of 13-22. This proposal will greatly expand our knowledge of how social bonding, familiarity, and soothing are instantiated neurally, as well as how social contact and soothing regulate neural systems supporting emotional responding. Moreover, the proposed design will allow us to evaluate the moderating influences on these neural systems of relationship characteristics such as status, quality and closeness;individual characteristics such as broad dimensions of emotion-regulatory personality, attachment and overt social behavior;and historical factors such as levels of parental affection versus abuse and neglect, and levels of adolescent peer integration versus rejection. A deeper understanding of the neural circuitry underlying social behavior and the social regulation of emotional responding promises not only to contribute to basic progress in neuroscience, biomedical research, social science, public health, and epidemiology, but also to our understanding of, and efficacy in treating, a number of severely debilitating affective and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism, Fragile X, William's Syndrome, Schizophrenia and even Major Depression.
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1 |
2012 — 2015 |
Coan, James Zhang, Tingting [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Collaborative Research: Statistical Modeling and Inference For High-Dimensional Multi-Subject Neuroimaging Data @ University of Virginia Main Campus
This project consists of two components, each motivated by the inference problem for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. In the first part, within the framework of generalized functional linear model (GFLM), a flexible semi-parametric model for neural hemodynamic response in the form of slope functions is introduced. To accommodate the variation of brain activity across different regions, stimulus types, and subjects, the new approach assumes the slope functions share the same but unknown functional shape for a given region and stimulus, while having subject-specific height, time to peak, and width. Several fast algorithms based on B-spline smoothing are proposed to estimate the model parameters for whole-brain analysis. The second part of the research focuses on building a novel Bayesian variable selection framework to study the relationship between individual traits and brain activity. The spline estimates of the brain hemodynamic responses from the first part are taken as predictors in a regression model where the response is the individual traits. Two types of priors are introduced jointly to achieve simultaneous variable selection and clustering.
FMRI is one of the most effective neuroimaging technologies for understanding brain activity. In recent years, fMRI data collected from complex studies with multiple subjects have been widely used in psychological and medical research. This project will provide tools for modeling, analysis and computation for this type of fMRI data. Project findings will advance basic understanding of the inter-relations between nature and nurture in shaping individual differences in brain function and behavior, and suggest new directions for interdisciplinary research that combines statistics, neuroscience and psychology. The open source R/Matlab software developed from the research will provide valuable data analysis and educational tools for the scientific community.
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0.915 |
2013 — 2016 |
Beckes, Lane (co-PI) [⬀] Coan, James |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Endogenous Opioid Mediation of the Social Regulation of Threat @ University of Virginia Main Campus
Social isolation has been found to be as detrimental to health as smoking and obesity, but the neural mechanisms linking social relationships to health and well-being are poorly understood. Evidence suggests that social support may increase endogenous opioid activity throughout the brain, and opioids limit the brain's reaction to stress. The proposed research will utilize a pharmacological intervention--naltrexone--to block endogenous opioid activity during a procedure that combines social support and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Using a randomized, double-blind placebo control design, participants will first receive either an opioid antagonist (which blocks the effects of opioids) or an inert sugar pill. Participants will then be subjected to a stressor during brain imaging under each of three conditions: while alone, while receiving social support from a stranger, and while receiving support from a spouse.
Dr. James Coan (University of Virgina) and colleagues' past research has demonstrated that threat-related brain activity is attenuated by social support using this experimental design, particularly when the support provider is a spouse. If opioid antagonists block this effect from occurring, that will constitute compelling evidence that at least one key mechanism linking social contact to better health is the activation of opioid activity that buffers us against the effects of stress. This study is unique in providing 1) a critical test of the opioid hypothesis of social support in humans; and 2) a novel approach to the methods used in this area of research by mixing a pharmaceutical intervention, a social support manipulation, and fMRI, all in a broadly representative community sample.
Historically, the greatest strides in understanding important phenomena follow a detailed account of underlying mechanisms. If naltrexone blocks the impact of social support on the brain's threat response, then vital steps will have been taken toward understanding the nature of well documented links between social relationships and health. Understanding these mechanisms could have a broad and meaningful influence on a numerous and diverse array of scientific and medical questions, paying substantial dividends to society as a whole. Knowledge of the basic mechanisms supporting relationship-health associations will help us to realize full potential of interventions that emphasize social relationships across a variety of disciplines and contexts.
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0.915 |