ArticleNature2015
Oxytocin enables maternal behaviour by balancing cortical inhibition.
Article in Nature, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 422 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.
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Who cites it
422 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 762 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain-based gene expression of putative risk genes for anorexia nervosa.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Intranasal oxytocin for apathy in people with frontotemporal dementia (FOXY): a multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, adaptive, crossover, phase 2a/2b superiority trial.The Lancet. Neurology · 2025Trial
- Neural circuits for mammalian parental behaviour.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Hypothalamic-amygdala gating of caregiving-like prosocial behavior in mice.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- A symmetric systemic challenge elicits a right-biased response mediated by vasopressin signaling.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Multidimensional maturation of oxytocin neurons: A principal component analysis of postnatal development.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Stable clique membership in male mouse societies requires oxytocin-enabled social sensory states.Nature communications · 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
- Love, death, and oxytocin: In memory of Larry Young.Progress in neurobiology · 2026Article
- Decoding the Oxytocinergic and Behavioral Signatures of Milk Ejection.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Article
- Beyond lactation: Central oxytocin in maternal mental health and disease.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Simultaneous Recordings of Neuronal Activities, Pup Calls, and Maternal Behaviors in Lactating Mice.eNeuro · 2026Article
- Maternal experience alters brain-wide representation of infant cries.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin selectively biases sensory-prefrontal communication through network-level suppression and theta coupling.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Oxytocin receptor neurons in the paraventricular thalamus as a nexus for social behaviour and fear.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Limited nesting stress in mice as a model to study neuroimmune relationships in postpartum depression.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Complementary influences of noradrenaline and dopamine in orchestrating a motivated social behavior.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2026Review
- Photocaged Oxytocin and Vasopressin Probes to Decipher Neuropeptide Signalling With High Spatiotemporal Resolution.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Oxytocin agonist TGOT differentially modulates synaptic plasticity and intrinsic excitability in a sex-specific manner in the juvenile rat hippocampus.Communications biology · 2026Article
- A collicular-hypothalamic pathway for social visual awareness.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
362 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
Oxytocin is important for social interactions and maternal behaviour. However, little is known about when, where and how oxytocin modulates neural circuits to improve social cognition. Here we show how oxytocin enables pup retrieval behaviour in female mice by enhancing auditory cortical pup call responses. Retrieval behaviour required the left but not right auditory cortex, was accelerated by oxytocin in the left auditory cortex, and oxytocin receptors were preferentially expressed in the left auditory cortex. Neural responses to pup calls were lateralized, with co-tuned and temporally precise excitatory and inhibitory responses in the left cortex of maternal but not pup-naive adults. Finally, pairing calls with oxytocin enhanced responses by balancing the magnitude and timing of inhibition with excitation. Our results describe fundamental synaptic mechanisms by which oxytocin increases the salience of acoustic social stimuli. Furthermore, oxytocin-induced plasticity provides a biological basis for lateralization of auditory cortical processing.
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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.