ArticlePsychopharmacology2016
Effects of oxytocin on background anxiety in rats with high or low baseline startle.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pharmacological modulation of conditioned fear in the fear-potentiated startle test: a systematic review and meta-analysis of animal studies.Psychopharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Trial
- Vasopressin and oxytocin excite BNST neurons via oxytocin receptors, which reduce anxious arousal.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Resilience by design: How nature, nurture, environment, and microbiome mitigate stress and allostatic load.World journal of psychiatry · 2023Review
- Ionic signalling mechanisms involved in neurokinin-3 receptor-mediated augmentation of fear-potentiated startle response in the basolateral amygdala.The Journal of physiology · 2022Article
- Oxytocin Attenuates the Stress-Induced Reinstatement of Alcohol-Seeking in Male Rats: Role of the Central Amygdala.Biomedicines · 2021Article
- Oxytocin Promotes Accurate Fear Discrimination and Adaptive Defensive Behaviors.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Review
- Oxytocin facilitates adaptive fear and attenuates anxiety responses in animal models and human studies-potential interaction with the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) system in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST).Cell and tissue research · 2019Review
- Oxytocin and Anxiety Disorders: Translational and Therapeutic Aspects.Current psychiatry reports · 2017Review
- Oxytocin receptor neurotransmission in the dorsolateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis facilitates the acquisition of cued fear in the fear-potentiated startle paradigm in rats.Neuropharmacology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleOxytocin has antianxiety properties in humans and rodents. However, the antianxiety effects have been variable.
objectivesTo reduce variability and to strengthen the antianxiety effect of oxytocin in fear-potentiated startle, two experiments were performed. First, different amounts of light-shock pairings were given to determine the optimal levels of cue-specific fear conditioning and non-predictable startle (background anxiety). Second, the antianxiety effects of oxytocin were examined in rats with high and low pre-fear conditioning baseline startle to determine if oxytocin differentially affects high and low trait anxiety rats.
methodsBaseline pre-fear conditioning startle responses were first measured. Rats then received 1, 5, or 10 light-shock pairings. Fear-potentiated startle was then tested with two trial types: light-cued startle and non-cued startle trials. In the second experiment, rats fear conditioned with 10 light-shock pairings were administered either saline or oxytocin before a fear-potentiated startle test. Rats were categorized as low or high startlers by their pre-fear conditioning startle amplitude.
resultsTen shock pairings produced the largest non-cued startle responses (background anxiety), without increasing cue-specific fear-potentiated startle compared to one and five light-shock pairings. Cue-specific fear-potentiated startle was unaffected by oxytocin. Oxytocin reduced background anxiety only in rats with low pre-fear startle responses.
conclusionsOxytocin has population selective antianxiety effects on non-cued unpredictable threat, but only in rats with low pre-fear baseline startle responses. The low startle responses are reminiscent of humans with low startle responses and high trait anxiety.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.