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Functional ontogeny of pair bonding neural circuits

Award Number: DP5OD033437
ORGANIZATION: OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, NIH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/13/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2025

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Functional ontogeny of pair bonding neural circuits - Project summary/Abstract The rewarding bonds we forge in adulthood, in particular our pair bonds with romantic partners, have innumerable protective effects on our brains and behaviors. Individuals with difficulties in social engagement and competence, such as those suffering from social anxiety, major depression, ADHD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, are particularly susceptible to the health risks of social isolation and impoverished social networks. Aberrant activity of dopaminergic reward systems during adolescence coincides with the onset of many of these disorders, suggesting that developmental abnormalities in the neural substrates that promote social reward underlies disease pathology. Critically, most of what we know about the neural mechanisms that facilitate pair bonding come from the study of adult brains, highlighting a dire need to investigate the functional development of social bonding circuits to design better therapeutic treatments for social dysfunctions. The current proposal aims to leverage the socially monogamous prairie vole system to investigate the maturational changes in dopaminergic reward circuitry that initiate the capacity for pair bonding in adulthood. Prairie voles form strong pair bonds with their mates, which relies on the functional activity of dopamine systems. In Aim 1, I will use fiber photometry to ask how developmental age and sex mediates socially induced changes in in vivo dopaminergic neural activity. In Aim 2, I will use chemogenetic approaches to investigate how perturbing dopamine circuits during sensitive developmental periods impacts adult pair bonding phenotypes. Finally, in Aim 3 I will investigate the developmental changes in transcriptional signatures of same‐sex and opposite‐sex social interactions as prairie voles mature and become capable of dopamine‐dependent pair bonding. Altogether, these efforts will determine how social experiences across developmental time scaffold the maturation of pair bonding dopamine circuits. These findings will profer novel insights into the molecular and cellular processes that may be disrupted in neuropsychiatric illnesses involving impaired bonding behaviors, which cannot be investigated in traditional non‐bonding rodent models.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2026	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	000	3	1/28/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $782,500 )
2025	2025	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	001	4	8/6/2025	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$782,500
2025	2025	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	002	4	9/12/2025	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$0
2025	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	000	3	8/6/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $782,500

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $391,250 )
2024	2024	THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	3100 MARINE ST	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	000	3	8/29/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$391,250
														Subtotal = $391,250

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $371,475 )
2023	2023	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, THE	3100 MARINE ST STE 481 572 UCB	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	000	2	8/31/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$371,475
														Subtotal = $371,475

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $370,910 )
2022	2022	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, THE	3100 MARINE ST STE 481 572 UCB	BOULDER	CO	80309	BOULDER	USA	Trans-NIH Research Support	000	1	9/13/2022	NEW	$370,910
														Subtotal = $370,910

Grand Total All Awards = $1,916,135

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Functional ontogeny of pair bonding neural circuits

Award Number: DP5OD033437

ORGANIZATION: OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, NIH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/13/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2025

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