# Neural Mechanisms of Decisions Made in the Context of Social Distress

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · 2021 · $432,492

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Recognizing the emotions of others guides our daily decisions. We perform actions that benefit others and
suppress those that might cause harm or distress, even when it requires personal sacrifice. The recognition
of a conspecific's distress and ability to alter ones behavior in light of that distress is disrupted in several
psychiatric disorders (e.g., autism, psychopathy). Unfortunately, we know very little about the
neurobiological substrates that control these functions because detailed work in animals at the single-unit
and neurotransmitter level has not yet occurred. Recently, there have been a number of behavioral studies
demonstrating that rodents can recognize conspecific distress and choose to alter behavior to alleviate that
distress. Here, we propose to use cutting edge neuroscience techniques – Designer Receptors Exclusively
Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDS), single-unit recording across multiple brain areas simultaneously,
fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV), optogenetics, and calcium imaging – to elucidate the neural
mechanisms related to modification of reward-guided behavior during conspecific distress in multiple social
contexts and time scales as contingencies are learned and social relationships change with experience. We
propose a circuit by which behaviors are modulated by predicted social distress via interactions between
basolateral amygdala (ABL), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), nucleus accumbens core (NAc), and
accumbal dopamine (DA) release. The dynamic relationship between areas within this circuit will be
uncovered with precise spatial and temporal resolution during learning and long-term social interaction by
recording from multiple brain areas simultaneously and determining if altered communication (DREADDS)
between areas impacts behavior. Calcium imaging will allow us to monitor activity across single neurons
and large groups of neurons over multiple days. We will jointly analyze images at different time instances
and determine what is common across time points versus what has changed, and statistically determine
how components correlate with behavior to determine how areas process social information at an internal
network level. We predict that the ABL-ACC circuit is important for pairing recognition of conspecific distress
with predictive stimuli and is necessary for correlates related to motivated behavior in NAc to be modified in
social contexts. Furthermore, ACC will be more heavily involved in co-registering information pertaining to
oneself and the conspecific, but is dependent on ABL during learning. We also theorize that DA release
modulates predictive value signals in downstream targets such as NAc by reporting negative and positive
prediction errors when rewards are accompanied by conspecific distress and shock avoidance. Finally, we
propose experiments that will attempt to modulate pro- and anti-social behavior via optogenetic stimulation
and inhibition of the DA system and by oxyto...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10091990
- **Project number:** 5R01MH112504-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK
- **Principal Investigator:** Joseph F Cheer
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $432,492
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10091990

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10091990, Neural Mechanisms of Decisions Made in the Context of Social Distress (5R01MH112504-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10091990. Licensed CC0.

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