乐播传媒

CU Boulder researcher plans to use NSF award to continue her research on how some mammalian species are innately driven to form intimate relationships with others

Zoe Donaldson, a behavioral neuroscientist and assistant professor at the 乐播传媒 Boulder, has won a听prestigious听Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The CAREER award recognizes early career faculty who conduct valuable research while showcasing the potential to lead students by serving as academic role models in research and education.

Donaldson was recognized in May with a $1.6 million award for her research on the brain鈥檚 innate disposition to form 鈥減air-bonds,鈥� or intimate monogamous relationships, with others.听

鈥淭he NSF cares about this question because it is a fundamental question in evolution: How do you evolve monogamy? And we鈥檝e broken that down to the more specific question of how do you build a brain that鈥檚 capable of forming pair-bonds?鈥� Donaldson said.

To answer that question, Donaldson looked at the molecular and cellular differences in the brains of prairie voles and their cousin species, meadow voles.听

Prairie voles form pair-bonds, or intimate life-long relationships, with other prairie voles who become their mating partners. Meadow voles, however, have multiple mating partners without ever forming a relationship with them.听

鈥淪o we can very simply ask: What is different between their brains?鈥� Donaldson said. 鈥淲e can actually watch cells in the brain become activated as an animal is pair-bonding with their partner, or in the case of meadow voles, mating, but not pair-bonding, and ask: 鈥楬ow is this different?鈥欌�澨�

Donaldson and her team do that by using a technique known as calcium imaging, where they can figure out how neurons function in the vole brains.

One of the differences that Donaldson is exploring is how prairie voles might store the memory of their mating partner in the reward circuits in their brains, making them feel good every time they see their partners again.

鈥淭he hypothesis would be that鈥� there are neural signatures or activity patterns that are indicative of remembering the individual, but only in prairie voles do we see a signature that would basically link that memory to it being a sustained source of reward,鈥� said Donaldson.

In a series of behavioral experiments, Donaldson and her lab observed how voles interact and bond with each other. First, they let a prairie vole bond with another vole, then separate the two between a lever-triggered door.

鈥淲e train them so that if they press (the) lever, they get to huddle with their partner for a while,鈥� said Donaldson. When exposed to another vole they aren鈥檛 bonded with, 鈥渢hey actually get into a little bit of an aggressive bout, which is really common.鈥�

Through these experiments, Donaldson and her team inferred: 鈥淒o you want to be with your partner; do you want to huddle with them; how hard are you willing to work; and how many times are you going to press that lever to get access to them?鈥�

According to Donaldson, these behaviors and neural signatures in voles could reflect how humans form intimate relationships with other humans.听

鈥淚鈥檝e had reporters in the past ask if this takes away the magic when you fall in love, and I would argue no,鈥� said Donaldson. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 amazing鈥� what your brain is capable of.鈥�

For Donaldson, 鈥渢he joy of science is the joy of discovery,鈥� and guiding students in exploring the intricacies of the mammalian brain when forming intimate relationships is the 鈥渂est part of my job.鈥澨�

Along with the CAREER award supporting Donaldson鈥檚 research, the grant also provides a substantial educational component for CU Boulder students and beyond.听

鈥淭here鈥檚 a data science course where the students are going to be working with datasets that we generate (in our research) ... They鈥檙e going to be learning about the molecular tools that we鈥檙e using in these voles, and they鈥檙e going to be proposing new experiments,鈥� Donaldson explained.

Another component of the CAREER award is funding a pathway to get students into PhD programs with Metropolitan State University of Denver, a federally designated Hispanic serving institution.

鈥淲e鈥檙e essentially providing them genuine research experience here at CU because we鈥檙e an R1 (Research 1) university, and we can augment the training opportunities for how to actually get into graduate school,鈥� Donaldson said.

This funding helps historically underserved students at MSU Denver by exposing them to the research process in more depth, along with exploring pathways to become researchers and scientists at CU Boulder, such as professional workshops on how to apply to graduate school.听

鈥淲hat I enjoy about teaching more generally is watching that sense of discovery emerge,鈥� Donaldson said.听

Donaldson earned her PhD in neuroscience from Emory University in 2009 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. She joined CU Boulder鈥檚 faculty in 2016.