ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2014
Common polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) is associated with human social recognition skills.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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
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Who cites it
93 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 201 citations in OpenAlex.
- Moral judgment and hormones: A systematic literature review.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- The role of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) DNA methylation (DNAm) in human social and emotional functioning: a systematic narrative review.BMC psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- Endosomal system genetics and autism spectrum disorders: A literature review.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2016Pooled it
- The oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) is associated with autism spectrum disorder: a meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2015Pooled it
- Genetic and epigenetic signatures associated with plasma oxytocin levels in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2023Trial
- The effect of intranasal oxytocin on visual processing and salience of human faces.Translational psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Oxytocin's neurochemical effects in the medial prefrontal cortex underlie recovery of task-specific brain activity in autism: a randomized controlled trial.Molecular psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Stable clique membership in male mouse societies requires oxytocin-enabled social sensory states.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Occludin deficiency is associated with developmental impairment, locomotor dysfunction, and social deficiencies.Tissue barriers · 2026Article
- Natural variation in the oxytocin receptor gene predicts social observation in female prairie voles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Reunion with a peer partner reduces PVN oxytocin neuron immunoreactivity in socially selective voles.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Functional characterization of OXTR-associated enhancers.Human molecular genetics · 2025Article
- This condition impacts every aspect of my life: A survey to understand the experience of living with developmental prosopagnosia.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Natural variation in oxytocin receptor signaling causes widespread changes in brain transcription: a link to the natural killer gene complex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Vasopressin, and not oxytocin, receptor gene methylation is associated with individual differences in receptive joint attention in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2023Article
- Genetic polymorphisms in the serotonin, dopamine and opioid pathways influence social attention in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).PloS one · 2023Article
- Effect of sex and autism spectrum disorder on oxytocin receptor binding and mRNA expression in the dopaminergic pars compacta of the human substantia nigra.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Interplay between the oxytocin and opioid systems in regulating social behaviour.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Sex-specific and social experience-dependent oxytocin-endocannabinoid interactions in the nucleus accumbens: implications for social behaviour.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin are evolutionarily conserved regulators of social perception and behavior. Evidence is building that they are critically involved in the development of social recognition skills within rodent species, primates, and humans. We investigated whether common polymorphisms in the genes encoding the oxytocin and vasopressin 1a receptors influence social memory for faces. Our sample comprised 198 families, from the United Kingdom and Finland, in whom a single child had been diagnosed with high-functioning autism. Previous research has shown that impaired social perception, characteristic of autism, extends to the first-degree relatives of autistic individuals, implying heritable risk. Assessments of face recognition memory, discrimination of facial emotions, and direction of gaze detection were standardized for age (7-60 y) and sex. A common SNP in the oxytocin receptor (rs237887) was strongly associated with recognition memory in combined probands, parents, and siblings after correction for multiple comparisons. Homozygotes for the ancestral A allele had impairments in the range -0.6 to -1.15 SD scores, irrespective of their diagnostic status. Our findings imply that a critical role for the oxytocin system in social recognition has been conserved across perceptual boundaries through evolution, from olfaction in rodents to visual memory in humans.
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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.