Social behavior is perhaps one of the most defining behavioral characteristic of any species, or individual for that matter. Vertebrate species display a remarkable range in social organization, from living relatively asocial and territorial lives, to being socially monogamous and living as bonded pairs, to being highly gregarious and living in large social groups. There is also considerable diversity in social behavior between individuals of a given species, which can be shaped by early social relationships, endocrine state, or genetic factors (Fig. 1). The display of social behavior can change dramatically over an individual’s lifetime, such as in the sudden shift in a mother’s attention towards infants following parturition. For decades many behaviorist considered social behavior far too complex to be understood at the level of brain mechanisms. At the other extreme, biologist with a bent towards biochemistry and genetics were skeptical that the brain mechanisms driving complex social behavior could ever be defined at a mechanistic level. However, over the past 30 years there has been remarkable progress in understanding the biological mechanisms that drive individuals to interact, and thus to be social. Much of our current understanding of the neuroendocrine events regulating social behavior has emerged from basic neuroscience designed to understand fundamental principles of brain– behavior relationships. For example, studies of the initiation of maternal nurturing behavior enlightened our understanding of the neuroendocrine changes leading to the onset of maternal nurturing and the formation of the mother–infant bond. However, with a shift over the last decade in the priorities of many funding agencies toward translational neuroscience, there has been the realization that understanding the circuitry underlying various aspects of social interactions, and how social relationships in turn impact those circuits, has tremendous implications for human health. Our social surrounding can greatly impact many aspects of our well being, including response to stressors, risk for mental illness, immune function and cardiovascular health. Furthermore, alterations in social behavior and social cognition are hallmarks of a number of psychiatric disorders, including depression and schizophrenia. Finally, a great deal of attention has recently been focused on a cluster of disorders characterized by severe disruptions in social reciprocity and communication referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In fact, the United States Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorders recently recommended significant funding to standardize and validate at least 20 model systems that replicate features of ASD and will allow identification of specific molecular targets or neural circuits amenable to existing or new interventions by 2012. Thus understanding the social brain is not only inherently interesting from a

中文翻译：

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社会大脑的神经内分泌学

社会行为可能是任何物种或个体最具决定性的行为特征之一。脊椎动物物种在社会组织中表现出显着的范围，从相对无社会和领土的生活，到社会上的一夫一妻制和结合成对生活，再到高度合群并生活在大型社会群体中。特定物种的个体之间的社会行为也存在相当大的差异，这可能受早期社会关系、内分泌状态或遗传因素的影响（图 1）。在一个人的一生中，社会行为的表现可能会发生巨大变化，例如分娩后母亲的注意力突然转移到婴儿身上。几十年来，许多行为主义者认为社会行为过于复杂，无法在大脑机制的层面上加以理解。在另一个极端，倾向于生物化学和遗传学的生物学家怀疑驱动复杂社会行为的大脑机制能否在机械层面上定义。然而，在过去的 30 年里，人们在理解驱动个体进行交互并进而实现社交的生物学机制方面取得了显着进展。我们目前对调节社会行为的神经内分泌事件的大部分理解来自旨在理解大脑-行为关系基本原理的基础神经科学。例如，对母体养育行为启动的研究启发了我们对导致母体养育开始和母婴关系形成的神经内分泌变化的理解。然而，随着过去十年许多资助机构的优先事项转向转化神经科学，人们已经意识到了解社会互动各个方面背后的回路，以及社会关系如何反过来影响这些回路，对人类健康有着巨大的影响. 我们的社会环境会极大地影响我们健康的许多方面，包括对压力源的反应、精神疾病的风险、免疫功能和心血管健康。此外，社会行为和社会认知的改变是许多精神疾病的标志，包括抑郁症和精神分裂症。最后，最近，大量注意力集中在一系列以社会互惠和沟通严重中断为特征的疾病上，称为自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD)。事实上，美国卫生与公众服务部跨部门自闭症协调委员会自闭症谱系障碍战略计划最近建议提供大量资金，以标准化和验证至少 20 个复制 ASD 特征的模型系统，并将允许识别特定的分子靶标或神经系统。到 2012 年可以适应现有的或新的干预措施。因此，了解社会大脑不仅是从一个