The effect of oxytocin on the anthropomorphism of touch

Peled-Avron, Leehe; Shamay‐Tsoory, Simone G.

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.01.015

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…These social-specific effects of OXT are in line with many previous studies (23) (but see ref. 24). The absence of simple main effects of OXT, sex, or valence in the amygdala indicates that the effect is likely to be driven by a sex-specific, valence-dependent action of the peptide (Table S1).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin, the peptide that bonds the sexes also divides them

Gao

Becker

Luo

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

147

106

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Facilitation of social attraction and bonding by the evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide oxytocin is well-established in female mammals. However, accumulating behavioral evidence suggests that oxytocin may have evolved sex-specific functional roles in the domain of human social cognition. A critical question is how oxytocin differentially modulates neural processing of social information in men and women, leading to divergent behavioral responses. Here we show that intranasal oxytocin treatment produces sex-and valence-dependent increases in amygdala activation when women view individuals identified as praising others but in men those who criticize them. Women subsequently show increased liking for the faces of these individuals, whereas in men it is reduced. Thus, oxytocin may act differentially via the amygdala to enhance the salience of positive social attributes in women but negative ones in men. We hypothesize that oxytocin may have evolved different but complementary roles to help ensure successful reproduction by encouraging mothers to promote a prosocial rearing environment for offspring and fathers to protect against antisocial influences.T he hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) plays a key role in promoting maternal behavior and mother-infant bonding in mammals (1) as well as pair bonds with males in monogamous species (2). Recent studies in both monkeys and humans have suggested that it has not only evolved a more extensive role in social cognition in female primates but also become progressively used by males in this domain (3). Although OXT appears to facilitate both salience and motivational aspects of social cues in both sexes (3, 4), there is increasing evidence that it may often produce opposite effects in these domains in men and women (5-7), raising the intriguing possibility that it has evolved some sex-specific functions at both neural and behavioral levels. In particular, behavioral studies have reported that whereas OXT tends to facilitate positive social judgments (7), social approach (8), kinship recognition (5), and altruism (9) in women, in men it can facilitate negative social judgments (7), social avoidance (10), competitor recognition (5), and selfishness (9). Similarly, in response to couple conflict, OXT decreased sympathetic activity and arousal in women but increased them in men (6). The neural basis of these opposing sex-dependent behavioral effects of OXT has not, however, been established.Previous research has shown that the amygdala has different responses to positive and negative valence social information in men and women (11) and also may be a critical target for sex-specific functional effects of OXT. The amygdala has a sexually dimorphic distribution and expression of OXT receptors in nonprimate mammals (12, 13), and separate OXT-application studies in humans have indicated that there may be differential amygdala reactivity to fearful faces and fearful/threatening scenes in men (14, 15) and women (16,17). Importantly, this region plays a key role in processing so...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin, the peptide that bonds the sexes also divides them

Gao

Becker

Luo

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

147

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The task used in this experiment was similar to the task described in Peled‐Avron, Levy‐Gigi, et al [] and Peled‐Avron, Perry, and Shamay‐Tsoory []. During the task, the participant sat approximately 60 cm from a 21" CRT monitor and was presented with a computerized task (E‐Prime 2.2 Psychological Software Tools was used for stimulus presentation and experimental control).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Don't touch me! autistic traits modulate early and late ERP components during visual perception of social touch

Peled-Avron

Shamay‐Tsoory

2017

Autism Research

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Although individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have impaired responses to interpersonal touch, the underlying neural correlates remain largely unknown. Here, we examined the neural correlates that underlie interpersonal touch perception in individuals with either high or low autistic traits. Fifty-three participants were classified as having either high or low autistic traits based on their performance on the autism quotient (AQ) questionnaire. We hypothesized that individuals with high AQ scores would have relatively high touch hypervigilance, reflected as earlier P1 and stronger late positive potential (LPP) responses, two components of event-related potentials that serve as electrophysiological markers of anxiety bias. We recorded each participant's electroencephalography activity during presentation of images depicting human touch, object touch, and non-touch control images. Consistent with our hypothesis, AQ scores were positively correlated with social touch aversion. Moreover, participants with high AQ scores had earlier P1 and stronger LPP responses when presented with human touch compared to the control images. Importantly, a regression model revealed that earlier P1 and larger LPP amplitude measured during social touch observation can accurately predict higher autistic trait levels. Taken together, these findings indicate that individuals with high levels of autistic traits may have a hypervigilant response to observed social touch. Autism Res 2017, 0: 000-000. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1141-1154. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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“…Some previous studies have examined whether administration of oxytocin affects responses to nonsocial cues [ 14 , 15 ]. For instance, administration of oxytocin improves recognition memory for images including human figures (e.g., images of human faces) but not for images not including human figures (e.g., images of houses, art sculptures, and landscapes) [ 14 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, administration of oxytocin improves recognition memory for images including human figures (e.g., images of human faces) but not for images not including human figures (e.g., images of houses, art sculptures, and landscapes) [ 14 ]. Meanwhile, a recent study reported that administration of oxytocin enhances the social meaning of images of objects [ 15 ]. Although the relationship between the OXTR rs53576 polymorphism and the oxytocin level is still unclear (reviewed in [ 16 ]), a later study [ 15 ] suggests a possibility that genetic variations in OXTR may be related not only to individual differences in the response to social cues but also to differences in the response to nonsocial cues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) rs53576 polymorphism and emotional processing of social and nonsocial cues: an event-related potential (ERP) study

Choi

Minote

Watanuki

2017

J Physiol Anthropol

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BackgroundOxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene polymorphisms are related to individual differences in emotional processing of social cues. However, whether OXTR polymorphisms affect emotional processing of nonsocial cues remains unclear. The present study investigated the relationship between the OXTR rs53576 polymorphism and emotional processing of social cues and nonsocial cues.MethodsEvent-related potentials were recorded from 88 male participants while images of humans and images of objects were presented as social cues and nonsocial cues, respectively.ResultsFirst, the results showed that GG carriers of OXTR rs53576 showed more negative N1 (50–200 ms) than AA carriers in response to images of both humans and objects. Second, GG carriers showed more negative N2 (200–320 ms) than AA carriers in response to images of humans but not in response to images of objects. Third, GG carriers showed more negative N2 in response to images of humans than images of objects, whereas AA carriers showed the opposite pattern. Fourth, we observed no difference in late positive potential (600–1000 ms) to images of humans or objects that depended on the OXTR rs53576 polymorphism.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the OXTR rs53576 polymorphism affects emotional processing of not only social cues but also nonsocial cues in the very early stage (reflected in N1); however, the data also suggest that the OXTR rs53576 polymorphism is related specifically to increased emotional processing of social cues in the middle stage (reflected in N2).

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The effect of oxytocin on the anthropomorphism of touch

Cited by 13 publications

References 36 publications

Oxytocin, the peptide that bonds the sexes also divides them

Oxytocin, the peptide that bonds the sexes also divides them

Don't touch me! autistic traits modulate early and late ERP components during visual perception of social touch

Associations between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) rs53576 polymorphism and emotional processing of social and nonsocial cues: an event-related potential (ERP) study

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