ArticleNature2013
Social reward requires coordinated activity of nucleus accumbens oxytocin and serotonin.
Article in Nature, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 643 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
643 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 1,192 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social reward processing in depressed and healthy individuals across the lifespan: A systematic review and a preliminary coordinate-based meta-analysis of fMRI studies.Behavioural brain research · 2023Pooled it
- Oxytocin Amplifies Negative Response to Ambiguity in Adolescent Females With and Without Eating Disorders.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025Trial
- Reduction of oxytocin plasma levels in borderline personality disorder and normalization induced by psychotherapies.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Oxytocin, but not vasopressin, decreases willingness to harm others by promoting moral emotions of guilt and shame.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Nucleus accumbens neuron subtype translatome signatures in socially stressed females.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Gene therapy with doxycycline-controlled expression of human Kv1.1 reduces neuronal excitability and increases sociability ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Sex differences in ferroptosis-related vulnerability to autism-like deficits in the adolescent medial prefrontal cortex following embryonic valproic acid exposure.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Loss of oxytocin receptor function disrupts neural signatures of pair bonding and fidelity in the nucleus accumbens.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Cell-type-specific disruption of nucleus accumbens social representations in a mouse model of autism.Neuron · 2026Article
- Maternal Social Support Reshapes the Offspring Brain Transcriptome to Buffer Prenatal Stress in Mice.Research square · 2026Article
- Proximity in mice induced by an auditory-conditioned stimulus.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Distinctly structured social behavior across three rodent strains is associated with different neural activity patterns.iScience · 2026Article
- Untangling Mephedrone-Induced Social Reward in Rats-The Involvement of Oxytocin and Vasopressin VGenes, brain, and behavior · 2026Article
- Phenotypic Behavioural Effects of Genetic Deletion of the Vesicular Glutamate Transporter 3 in 5-Hydroxytryptamine Neurons.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2026Article
- A Brain-Wide Atlas of Astrocytic Oxytocin Receptors Reveals a Glial Basis for Nucleus Accumbens Modulation of Affiliative Behavior.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Oxytocin promotes socially triggered cataplexy.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Extended amygdala orchestrates social motivation in socially isolated mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Endogenous oxytocin-linked heart-rate synchrony and social connection during live sports spectatorship.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- History, pharmacology and therapeutic mechanisms of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).British journal of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Serotonergic Modulation of Social Dominance via the Dorsal Raphe-Central Amygdala Circuit in Male Mice.Integrative zoology · 2026Article
583 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Social behaviours in species as diverse as honey bees and humans promote group survival but often come at some cost to the individual. Although reinforcement of adaptive social interactions is ostensibly required for the evolutionary persistence of these behaviours, the neural mechanisms by which social reward is encoded by the brain are largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that in mice oxytocin acts as a social reinforcement signal within the nucleus accumbens core, where it elicits a presynaptically expressed long-term depression of excitatory synaptic transmission in medium spiny neurons. Although the nucleus accumbens receives oxytocin-receptor-containing inputs from several brain regions, genetic deletion of these receptors specifically from dorsal raphe nucleus, which provides serotonergic (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) innervation to the nucleus accumbens, abolishes the reinforcing properties of social interaction. Furthermore, oxytocin-induced synaptic plasticity requires activation of nucleus accumbens 5-HT1B receptors, the blockade of which prevents social reward. These results demonstrate that the rewarding properties of social interaction in mice require the coordinated activity of oxytocin and 5-HT in the nucleus accumbens, a mechanistic insight with implications for understanding the pathogenesis of social dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.