Monday, February 16, 2026 2/16/2026

Role of early-life sleep and sensory environment in shaping the development of affiliative behavior and PV-interneurons in the somatosensory cortex of the highly social prairie vole.

Award Number: F31MH136684
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/01/2024
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2027

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Role of early-life sleep and sensory environment in shaping the development of affiliative behavior and PV-interneurons in the somatosensory cortex of the highly social prairie vole. - Project Summary Early life sleep is fundamental to the development of affiliative behavior, defined as any behavioral display that promotes positive social engagement. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by persistent changes in social behavior, sensory sensitivity, and sleep disruption. Additionally, excitatory, and inhibitory neuronal activity (E/I balance) is altered in ASD. Increased expression of parvalbumin-positive inhibitory interneurons and the appearance of extracellular structures, perineuronal nets (PNNs) surrounding these cells mark the functional maturation of the sensory cortex. The highly social prairie vole is an excellent model with which to study the relationship between early-life sleep and the development of neural circuitry underlying the display of affiliative behavior. Unlike mice and rats, prairie voles demonstrate species-typical familiarity preference demonstrated by side-by-side huddling in a novel environment. Our lab has shown early-life sleep disruption (ELSD) in prairie voles impairs species-typical affiliative behavior (huddling) and increases PV interneurons (PVIs) in the somatosensory cortex of adults. However, we do not know how ELSD impacts the early display of affiliative behavior nor how PV interneurons may mediate this early behavioral development. Our understanding of social behavior has been largely limited to manual scoring using a fixed set of identifiers. Use of novel computational tools for the objective discovery of affiliative behavior will allow for a more comprehensive understanding of subtle cues in this complex behavior during development. Thus, I propose to investigate the development of affiliative behavior between same-sex siblings (Aim 1) and PVIs (Aim 2) of male and female prairie voles across adolescence (P28-42) following ELSD (P14-21) or the Control condition. Characterizing the trajectory of both brain and behavior is expected to provide key insights into the functional role of early-life sleep in social development. The central hypothesis of this work is that, early-life sleep disruption alters the maturation of PV interneurons and results in reduced affiliative behavior between siblings during development. To understand the mechanisms underlying the timing of PV expression and affiliative behavior, we will randomize animals to standard housing versus an enriched environment (Aim 3) to probe potential rescue of brain and behavioral changes induced by ELSD. Identifying the molecular trajectories by which ELSD changes typical affiliative behavior and how enrichment modifies these social impairments may enable a better understanding of mechanisms underlying successful therapies for children with ASD.


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 = $49,538 )
2026	2026	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	1/14/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$49,538
														Subtotal = $49,538

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $48,974 )
2024	2024	OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY	3181 SW SAM JACKSON PARK RD	PORTLAND	OR	97239	MULTNOMAH	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	6/28/2024	NEW	$48,974
														Subtotal = $48,974

Grand Total All Awards = $98,512

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Role of early-life sleep and sensory environment in shaping the development of affiliative behavior and PV-interneurons in the somatosensory cortex of the highly social prairie vole.

Award Number: F31MH136684

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/01/2024

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2027

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer