Brain Dynamics of Oxytocin

Summary

Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that is well known for its role in social and affiliative behavior in humans. Oxytocin receptors are significantly lowered in autistic individuals and administration of oxytocin has shown benefits in enhancing social recognition and behavior in autistic children. However, more recent research has refined the behavioral effects of oxytocin, moving away from the notion that the neuropeptide blindly induces love and trust, towards the view that it actually increases social perception in assessing friend vs. foe: supporting cohesion with 'insiders' and distrust and aggression for 'outsiders.' Oxytocin is responsible for the selective aggression shown by lactating female mammals protecting their young, an effect demonstrated also in humans, and has been shown to strengthen feelings of ethnocentrism. However, no neuroimaging study to date has investigated this effect, with the consequence that its neurobiological basis is still unknown. The general aim of our study is to determine meso-circuit brain dynamics that underlie oxytocin's amplification of both trust and aggression; and specifically, using neuroimaging (fMRI, magnetoencephalography, and behavioral testing) whether oxytocin amplifies kinship bias by attenuating social reward learning.

Timeline

Start

2013-04

Primary completion

2015-05

Completion

2015-05

Publications

• Background Averbeck BB. Oxytocin and the salience of social cues. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 May 18;107(20):9033-4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1004892107. Epub 2010 May 6. No abstract available.
• Background Insel TR. The challenge of translation in social neuroscience: a review of oxytocin, vasopressin, and affiliative behavior. Neuron. 2010 Mar 25;65(6):768-79. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.005.
• Background Baumgartner T, Heinrichs M, Vonlanthen A, Fischbacher U, Fehr E. Oxytocin shapes the neural circuitry of trust and trust adaptation in humans. Neuron. 2008 May 22;58(4):639-50. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.04.009.
• Background Delgado MR. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on oxytocin. Neuron. 2008 May 22;58(4):470-1. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.05.005.
• Background Kosfeld M, Heinrichs M, Zak PJ, Fischbacher U, Fehr E. Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature. 2005 Jun 2;435(7042):673-6. doi: 10.1038/nature03701.
• Background Wermter AK, Kamp-Becker I, Hesse P, Schulte-Korne G, Strauch K, Remschmidt H. Evidence for the involvement of genetic variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) in the etiology of autistic disorders on high-functioning level. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2010 Mar 5;153B(2):629-639. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.31032.
• Background Park J, Willmott M, Vetuz G, Toye C, Kirley A, Hawi Z, Brookes KJ, Gill M, Kent L. Evidence that genetic variation in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene influences social cognition in ADHD. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2010 May 30;34(4):697-702. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2010.03.029. Epub 2010 Mar 27.
• Background Gregory SG, Connelly JJ, Towers AJ, Johnson J, Biscocho D, Markunas CA, Lintas C, Abramson RK, Wright HH, Ellis P, Langford CF, Worley G, Delong GR, Murphy SK, Cuccaro ML, Persico A, Pericak-Vance MA. Genomic and epigenetic evidence for oxytocin receptor deficiency in autism. BMC Med. 2009 Oct 22;7:62. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-7-62.
• Background Andari E, Duhamel JR, Zalla T, Herbrecht E, Leboyer M, Sirigu A. Promoting social behavior with oxytocin in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Mar 2;107(9):4389-94. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0910249107. Epub 2010 Feb 16.
• Background Guastella AJ, Einfeld SL, Gray KM, Rinehart NJ, Tonge BJ, Lambert TJ, Hickie IB. Intranasal oxytocin improves emotion recognition for youth with autism spectrum disorders. Biol Psychiatry. 2010 Apr 1;67(7):692-4. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.09.020. Epub 2009 Nov 7.
• Background Rossignol DA. Novel and emerging treatments for autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2009 Oct-Dec;21(4):213-36.
• Background Opar A. Search for potential autism treatments turns to 'trust hormone'. Nat Med. 2008 Apr;14(4):353. doi: 10.1038/nm0408-353. No abstract available.
• Background Bartz J, Simeon D, Hamilton H, Kim S, Crystal S, Braun A, Vicens V, Hollander E. Oxytocin can hinder trust and cooperation in borderline personality disorder. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2011 Oct;6(5):556-63. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsq085. Epub 2010 Nov 29.
• Background Bartz JA, Zaki J, Ochsner KN, Bolger N, Kolevzon A, Ludwig N, Lydon JE. Effects of oxytocin on recollections of maternal care and closeness. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Dec 14;107(50):21371-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1012669107. Epub 2010 Nov 29.
• Background Hahn-Holbrook J, Holt-Lunstad J, Holbrook C, Coyne SM, Lawson ET. Maternal defense: breast feeding increases aggression by reducing stress. Psychol Sci. 2011 Oct;22(10):1288-95. doi: 10.1177/0956797611420729. Epub 2011 Aug 26.
• Background De Dreu CK, Greer LL, Van Kleef GA, Shalvi S, Handgraaf MJ. Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Jan 25;108(4):1262-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1015316108. Epub 2011 Jan 10.
• Background Domes G, Lischke A, Berger C, Grossmann A, Hauenstein K, Heinrichs M, Herpertz SC. Effects of intranasal oxytocin on emotional face processing in women. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2010 Jan;35(1):83-93. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.06.016.
• Background Domes G, Heinrichs M, Glascher J, Buchel C, Braus DF, Herpertz SC. Oxytocin attenuates amygdala responses to emotional faces regardless of valence. Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Nov 15;62(10):1187-90. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.03.025. Epub 2007 Jul 9.
• Background Domes G, Heinrichs M, Michel A, Berger C, Herpertz SC. Oxytocin improves "mind-reading" in humans. Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Mar 15;61(6):731-3. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.015. Epub 2006 Nov 29.
• Background Dupont CP. Contact dermatitis in Dublin. Contact Dermatitis. 1979 Jan;5(1):61-2. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0536.1979.tb05548.x. No abstract available.
• Background Kirsch P, Esslinger C, Chen Q, Mier D, Lis S, Siddhanti S, Gruppe H, Mattay VS, Gallhofer B, Meyer-Lindenberg A. Oxytocin modulates neural circuitry for social cognition and fear in humans. J Neurosci. 2005 Dec 7;25(49):11489-93. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3984-05.2005.
• Background Petrovic P, Kalisch R, Singer T, Dolan RJ. Oxytocin attenuates affective evaluations of conditioned faces and amygdala activity. J Neurosci. 2008 Jun 25;28(26):6607-15. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4572-07.2008.
• Background Pincus D, Kose S, Arana A, Johnson K, Morgan PS, Borckardt J, Herbsman T, Hardaway F, George MS, Panksepp J, Nahas Z. Inverse effects of oxytocin on attributing mental activity to others in depressed and healthy subjects: a double-blind placebo controlled FMRI study. Front Psychiatry. 2010 Oct 12;1:134. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2010.00134. eCollection 2010.
• Background Singer T, Snozzi R, Bird G, Petrovic P, Silani G, Heinrichs M, Dolan RJ. Effects of oxytocin and prosocial behavior on brain responses to direct and vicariously experienced pain. Emotion. 2008 Dec;8(6):781-91. doi: 10.1037/a0014195.
• Background MacDonald E, Dadds MR, Brennan JL, Williams K, Levy F, Cauchi AJ. A review of safety, side-effects and subjective reactions to intranasal oxytocin in human research. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2011 Sep;36(8):1114-26. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.02.015. Epub 2011 Mar 23.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.