The Role of Synaptic Cell Adhesion Molecules and Associated Scaffolding Proteins in Social Affiliative Behaviors

Abstract Social affiliative behaviors -- engagement in positive (i.e. non-aggressive) social approach and reciprocal social interactions with a conspecific -- comprise a construct within the NIMH RDoC Social Processes Domain. Affiliative behaviors are disrupted in multiple human neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism, schizophrenia, social phobia, and others. Human genetic studies have strongly implicated synaptic cell adhesion molecules (sCAMs) in several such disorders that involve marked reductions, or other dysregulations, of social affiliative behaviors. Here, we review the literature on the role of sCAMs in social affiliative behaviors. We integrate findings pertaining to synapse structure and morphology, neurotransmission, postsynaptic signaling pathways, and neural circuitry to propose a multi-level model that addresses the impact of a diverse group of sCAMs, including neurexins, neuroligins, protocadherins, immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily proteins, and leucine rich repeat proteins, as well as their associated scaffolding proteins, including Shanks and others, on social affiliative behaviors. This review finds that the disruption of sCAMs often manifests in changes in social affiliative behaviors, likely through alterations in synaptic maturity, pruning, and specificity leading to excitation / inhibition imbalance in several key regions, namely the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), basolateral amygdala (BLA), hippocampus, and ventral tegmental area (VTA). Unraveling the complex network of interacting sCAMs in glutamatergic synapses will be an important strategy for elucidating the mechanisms of social affiliative behaviors and the alteration of these behaviors in many neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.