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Journal ArticleDOI

The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Facilitates Pro-Social Behavior and Prevents Social Avoidance in Rats and Mice

01 Oct 2011-Neuropsychopharmacology (Nature Publishing Group)-Vol. 36, Iss: 11, pp 2159-2168
TL;DR: The data indicate that the basal activity of the endogenous brain OT system is sufficient to promote natural occurring social preference in rodents while synthetic OT shows potential to reverse stress-induced social avoidance and might thus be of use for treating social phobia and social dysfunction in humans.
About: This article is published in Neuropsychopharmacology.The article was published on 2011-10-01 and is currently open access. It has received 347 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Social relation & Social defeat.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Shifting the balance between the neuropeptide systems towards oxytocin, by positive social stimuli and/or psychopharmacotherapy, may help to improve emotional behaviors and reinstate mental health.

764 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The mechanisms of OXT expression and release, expression and binding of the OXTR in brain and periphery, OX TR-coupled signaling cascades, and their involvement in behavioral outcomes are discussed to assemble a comprehensive picture of the central and peripheral OXT system.
Abstract: The many facets of the oxytocin (OXT) system of the brain and periphery elicited nearly 25,000 publications since 1930 (see FIGURE 1, as listed in PubMed), which revealed central roles for OXT and ...

510 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The role of feedbacks in recent models of adaptive personalities, and guidelines for empirical testing of model assumptions and predictions are provided, to provide a roadmap for including state-behaviour Feedbacks in behavioural ecology research.
Abstract: An exciting area in behavioural ecology focuses on understanding why animals exhibit consistent among-individual differences in behaviour (animal personalities). Animal personality has been proposed to emerge as an adaptation to individual differences in state variables, leading to the question of why individuals differ consistently in state. Recent theory emphasizes the role that positive feedbacks between state and behaviour can play in producing consistent among-individual covariance between state and behaviour, hence state-dependent personality. We review the role of feedbacks in recent models of adaptive personalities, and provide guidelines for empirical testing of model assumptions and predictions. We discuss the importance of the mediating effects of ecology on these feedbacks, and provide a roadmap for including state–behaviour feedbacks in behavioural ecology research.

463 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Research in animals and humans has revealed some of the structural, functional and molecular changes in the brain that underlie the effects of stress on social behaviour and will have implications both for the clinic and for society.
Abstract: Early-life stress can contribute to predispositions to antisocial behaviour in adulthood. Similarly, acute or chronic stress during adulthood can alter our social behaviour. Sandi and Haller emphasize the importance of timing of stress for its effects on social behaviour and describe current understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

418 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review discusses the evidence showing the presence or absence of sex differences in VP and OT receptors in rodents and humans, as well as showing new data of sexually dimorphic V1a receptor binding in the rat brain.

374 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A novel test for the selective identification of anxiolytic and anxiogenic drug effects in the rat is described, using an elevated + -maze consisting of two open arms and two enclosed arms, which showed that behaviour on the maze was not clearly correlated either with exploratory head-dipping or spontaneous locomotor activity.

5,391 citations


"The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Facilitat..." refers methods in this paper

  • ...The elevated plus-maze was used to assess the effects of the OTR-A or of PTZ on non-social anxiety-related behavior in both rats and mice (Pellow et al, 1985)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
02 Jun 2005-Nature
TL;DR: It is shown that intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, causes a substantial increase in trust among humans, thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions.
Abstract: Trust pervades human societies. Trust is indispensable in friendship, love, families and organizations, and plays a key role in economic exchange and politics. In the absence of trust among trading partners, market transactions break down. In the absence of trust in a country's institutions and leaders, political legitimacy breaks down. Much recent evidence indicates that trust contributes to economic, political and social success. Little is known, however, about the biological basis of trust among humans. Here we show that intranasal administration of oxytocin, a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, causes a substantial increase in trust among humans, thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions. We also show that the effect of oxytocin on trust is not due to a general increase in the readiness to bear risks. On the contrary, oxytocin specifically affects an individual's willingness to accept social risks arising through interpersonal interactions. These results concur with animal research suggesting an essential role for oxytocin as a biological basis of prosocial approach behaviour.

3,202 citations


"The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Facilitat..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…eye region (Gamer et al, 2010; Guastella et al, 2008), and improved recognition of emotional facial expressions (Domes et al, 2007; Savaskan et al, 2008) to complex social behaviors like trust, social-risk taking, and empathy (Baumgartner et al, 2008; Hurlemann et al, 2010; Kosfeld et al, 2005)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
10 Feb 2006-Science
TL;DR: It is shown that viral-mediated, mesolimbic dopamine pathway–specific knockdown of brain-derived neurotrophic factor is required for the development of experience-dependent social aversion in mice experiencing repeated aggression.
Abstract: Mice experiencing repeated aggression develop a long-lasting aversion to social contact, which can be normalized by chronic, but not acute, administration of antidepressant. Using viral-mediated, mesolimbic dopamine pathway-specific knockdown of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), we showed that BDNF is required for the development of this experience-dependent social aversion. Gene profiling in the nucleus accumbens indicates that local knockdown of BDNF obliterates most of the effects of repeated aggression on gene expression within this circuit, with similar effects being produced by chronic treatment with antidepressant. These results establish an essential role for BDNF in mediating long-term neural and behavioral plasticity in response to aversive social experiences.

1,873 citations


"The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Facilitat..." refers methods or result in this paper

  • ...The social preference paradigm in rats was based on the social approach-avoidance test previously described in mice (Berton et al, 2006)....

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  • ...In accordance with previous studies demonstrating social avoidance after repeated or chronic exposure to social defeat (Berton et al, 2006; Haller and Bakos, 2002; Meerlo et al, 1996; Vidal et al, 2007), we show here that a single social defeat exposure, prior to the social preference test, induces…...

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that human amygdala function is strongly modulated by oxytocin, and this results indicate a neural mechanism for the effects of Oxytocin in social cognition in the human brain and provide a methodology and rationale for exploring therapeutic strategies in disorders in which abnormal amygdala function has been implicated, such as social phobia or autism.
Abstract: In non-human mammals, the neuropeptide oxytocin is a key mediator of complex emotional and social behaviors, including attachment, social recognition, and aggression. Oxytocin reduces anxiety and impacts on fear conditioning and extinction. Recently, oxytocin administration in humans was shown to increase trust, suggesting involvement of the amygdala, a central component of the neurocircuitry of fear and social cognition that has been linked to trust and highly expresses oxytocin receptors in many mammals. However, no human data on the effects of this peptide on brain function were available. Here, we show that human amygdala function is strongly modulated by oxytocin. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to image amygdala activation by fear-inducing visual stimuli in 15 healthy males after double-blind crossover intranasal application of placebo or oxytocin. Compared with placebo, oxytocin potently reduced activation of the amygdala and reduced coupling of the amygdala to brainstem regions implicated in autonomic and behavioral manifestations of fear. Our results indicate a neural mechanism for the effects of oxytocin in social cognition in the human brain and provide a methodology and rationale for exploring therapeutic strategies in disorders in which abnormal amygdala function has been implicated, such as social phobia or autism.

1,477 citations


"The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Facilitat..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…processing, has been implicated as one of the key regions mediating neuronal actions of OT on social behaviors in humans (Baumgartner et al, 2008; Gamer et al, 2010; Hurlemann et al, 2010; Kirsch et al, 2005) as well as in rodents (Choleris et al, 2007; Ferguson et al, 2001; Lee et al, 2007)....

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  • ...Similarly, human imaging studies suggest an involvement of amygdala subnuclei in oxytocinergic processing of social interactions and fear response (Gamer et al, 2010; Hurlemann et al, 2010; Kirsch et al, 2005; Labuschagne et al, 2010)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Oxytocin improves the ability to infer the mental state of others from social cues of the eye region, and might play a role in the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder, which is characterized by severe social impairment.

1,209 citations


"The Neuropeptide Oxytocin Facilitat..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…increased gazing toward the eye region (Gamer et al, 2010; Guastella et al, 2008), and improved recognition of emotional facial expressions (Domes et al, 2007; Savaskan et al, 2008) to complex social behaviors like trust, social-risk taking, and empathy (Baumgartner et al, 2008; Hurlemann…...

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