Oxytocin attenuates feelings of hostility depending on emotional context and individuals' characteristics

Abstract

In humans, oxytocin (OT) enhances prosocial behaviour. However, it is still unclear how the prosocial effects of OT are modulated by emotional features and/or individuals' characteristics. In a placebo-controlled design, we tested 20 healthy male volunteers to investigate these behavioural and neurophysiological modulations using magnetoencephalography. As an index of the individuals' characteristics, we used the empathy quotient (EQ), the autism spectrum quotient (AQ), and the systemising quotient (SQ). Only during the perception of another person's angry face was a higher SQ a significant predictor of OT-induced prosocial change, both in the behavioural and neurophysiological indicators. In addition, a lower EQ was only a significant predictor of OT-induced prosocial changes in the neurophysiological indicators during the perception of angry faces. Both on the behavioural and the neurophysiological level, the effects of OT were specific for anger and correlated with a higher SQ.

Impact of Maternal Depression Across the First 6 Years of Life on the Child’s Mental Health, Social Engagement, and Empathy: The Moderating Role of Oxytocin

“…Since the OXTR rs2254298 GG genotype is linked with lower peripheral oxytocin levels and less parenting behavior in both fathers and mothers (13), the children of depressed mothers were growing up in low-oxytocin environments with little compensatory input from their fathers. Studies have underscored the links among disruptions in oxytocin, lower empathy levels, and disorders of social dysfunctions (31), and the current findings suggest that the consistency of oxytocin dysfunction within families may contribute to the cross-generational transfer of psychiatric vulnerability.…”

Neurofunctional maps of the ‘maternal brain’ and the effects of oxytocin: A multimodal voxel‐based meta‐analysis

“…In fact, the development of the amygdala could be modulated by genetic polymorphisms of the OTR, which seem to be related with the volume of this structure . From a functional perspective, acute administration of OT might regulate anxiety and fear through an action at this level, modulated by the complexity of emotional context and individual characteristics . In rats, OT modulated specific neuronal population of the central amygdala, supposed to be critical in anxious and fearful behavior .…”

Helping oxytocin deliver: considerations in the development of oxytocin-based therapeutics for brain disorders

“…Most of these putative biomarkers have been utilized in conjunction with OT, and this is one arena where single-dose OT studies have been invaluable in terms of OT's development as a pharmaceutical. Though there has been relatively little clinically oriented biomarker research with OT (i.e., correlation of a biomarker with meaningful clinical syndromes or outcomes), the extant OT literature contains several promising candidates: heart-rate variability (HRV) (Kemp et al, 2012), skin conductance (GSR) (de Oliveira et al, 2012b), stressed cortisol responses (Ditzen et al, 2009; Quirin et al, 2011; Simeon et al, 2011; Cardoso et al, 2012; Linnen et al, 2012), facial affect recognition (Fu et al, 2007, 2008; Harmer et al, 2009a,b), pupil responses (Leknes et al, 2012), EEG measures (Perry et al, 2010), MEG (Hirosawa et al, 2012), and a variety of functional imaging (fMRI) parameters, including alteration of default-mode network (Sripada et al, 2013), responses to naturalistic social stimuli (Riem et al, 2011, 2012), and stress-induced amygdala responsivity and connectivity patterns (Labuschagne et al, 2010, 2011; Zink and Meyer-Lindenberg, 2012). Regarding functional imaging biomarkers, these techniques would be greatly aided by technical advances, especially a radionucleotide for OTRs.…”