Oxytocin modulates social brain network correlations in resting and task state

Abstract

The effects of oxytocin (OT) on the social brain can be tracked upon assessing the neural activity in resting and task states, and developing a system-level framework for characterizing the state-based functional relationships of its distinct effect. Here, we contribute to this framework by examining how OT modulates social brain network correlations during resting and task states, using fMRI. First, we investigated network activation, followed by an analysis of the relationships between networks and individual differences. Subsequently, we evaluated the functional connectivity in both states. Finally, the relationship between networks across states was represented by the predictive power of networks in the resting state for task-evoked activities. The differences in the predicted accuracy between the subjects displayed individual variations in this relationship. Our results showed that the activity of the dorsal default mode network in the resting state had the largest predictive power for task-evoked activation of the precuneus network (PN) only in the OT group. The results also demonstrated that OT reduced the individual variation in PN in the prediction process. These findings suggest a distributed but modulatory effect of OT on the association between resting and task-dependent brain networks.

Oxytocin enhances the triangular association among behavior, resting‐state, and task‐state functional connectivity

“…Establishing the association between inter‐individual differences in different data levels may extend the understanding of the individual differences caused by OT. Moreover, in a previous study with the same data as ours, oxytocin improved the prediction of task‐evoked activation from resting state activity (Wu et al, 2023 ). Nonetheless, whether the OT administration could enhance the association between the inter‐individual difference in different levels (e.g., behavioral and brain levels) has not been systematically explored.…”

“…As for the placebo, participants in this group received the same volume of saline water via intranasal administration as those in the oxytocin group, ensuring consistency in the dosing regimen across both groups. More details about the treatment can also be found in our previous work (Wu et al, 2023;Zheng et al, 2022;Y. Wang et al, 2023).…”

Attachment Stimuli Trigger Widespread Synchrony across Multiple Brains

“…While our first two pre-registered hypotheses were supported by the findings, the third hypothesis, which postulated greater cross-brain synchrony under OT, was not. OT has been repeatedly linked with parental caregiving behaviors (Olazábal and Young, 2006; Levine et al, 2007; Galbally et al, 2011) and OT administration modified activations in the PCN to attachment stimuli (Riem et al, 2011a; Owen et al, 2013; Wu et al, 2022). However, unlike levels of activation, no differences emerged in cross-brain correlations to attachment stimuli under OT versus PBO in both the social and alone contexts.…”

“…However, unlike levels of activation, no differences emerged in cross-brain correlations to attachment stimuli under OT versus PBO in both the social and alone contexts. While prior studies showed that OT modulated functional connectivity within- and between-networks, such as the DMN and salience network (Jiang et al, 2021; Zheng et al, 2021; Wu et al, 2022), cross-person correspondence to attachment cues has not been studied.…”

“…Finally, as oxytocin is a key modulator of the maternal brain in both humans (Numan, 2006; Norholt, 2020) and other mammals (Bosch and Neumann, 2012; Feldman and Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2017; Althammer et al, 2018), and OT administration impacts activity and connectivity in the PCN to attachment stimuli (Riem et al, 2011b; Bos et al, 2018; Shimon-Raz et al, 2021), we tested the effects of OT administration on cross-brain synchrony in response to four “social” and “alone” attachment stimuli. Two prior studies examined the effect of OT administration on cross-brain synchrony; an EEG study showed enhanced cross-brain synchrony under OT (Mu et al, 2016) and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study showed that OT administration modulated inter-brain correlations in the dorsal DMN and the precuneus network (Wu et al, 2022), and we thus examined the effects of OT on both the PCN and DMN.…”