ArticleNeuropharmacology2017
Oxytocin in the medial prefrontal cortex attenuates anxiety: Anatomical and receptor specificity and mechanism of action.
Article in Neuropharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Early life adversity, oxytocin system alterations, and addiction vulnerability: a narrative review.Psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Hypothalamic Oxytocin Neuronal Activation Induces Bipolar-Like Mood Changes in Mice in a Sex- and Dosage-Dependent Manner.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Article
- An Epigenetic Switch for Sex-Specific Brain Resilience in Stroke: Targeting HDAC2 to Amplify Endogenous Oxytocin Signaling.ACS central science · 2026Article
- Oxytocin attenuates isolation-evoked emotional and social behavioral dysregulation through neural, immune, and microbiota mechanisms.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Interactive impacts of social deprivation and intranasal oxytocin administration on oxytocin receptor density in prairie vole brains.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Hormonal contraceptives during adolescence impact the female brain and behavior in a rat model.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- Neuropeptidergic systems in psychiatric disorders.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- A comprehensive analysis of allele-specific expression and transcriptomic profiling in pig limbic and endocrine tissues.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2025Article
- Mechanisms of Social Attachment Between Children and Pet Dogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- PVN-mPFC OT projections modulate pup-directed pup care or attacking in virgin mandarin voles.eLife · 2024Article
- Examining the Role of Oxytocinergic Signaling and Neuroinflammatory Markers in the Therapeutic Effects of MDMA in a Rat Model for PTSD.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Therapeutic uses of oxytocin in stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders.Cell & bioscience · 2023Review
- Medial prefrontal cortex oxytocin mitigates epilepsy and cognitive impairments induced by traumatic brain injury through reducing neuroinflammation in mice.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Differences in the neural basis and transcriptomic patterns in acute and persistent pain-related anxiety-like behaviors.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Tryptophan Hydroxylase 2 Knockout Male Rats Exhibit a Strengthened Oxytocin System, Are Aggressive, and Are Less Anxious.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2022Article
- Oxytocin Prevents the Development of 3-NP-Induced Anxiety and Depression in Male and Female Rats: Possible Interaction of OXTR and mGluR2.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2022Article
- Oxytocin and vasopressin: Signalling, behavioural modulation and potential therapeutic effects.British journal of pharmacology · 2022Review
- The modulation of emotional and social behaviors by oxytocin signaling in limbic network.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Review
- Beyond tingles: An exploratory qualitative study of the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR).PloS one · 2022Article
- Roles of Oxytocin in Stress Responses, Allostasis and Resilience.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Numerous studies in animals and humans have established that oxytocin (OT) reduces anxiety. In rats, the prelimbic (PL) subregion of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is among the brain areas implicated in the anxiolytic actions of OT. However, questions remain about the anatomical and receptor specificity of OT and its mechanism of action. Here we assessed whether the regulation of anxiety by mPFC OT is restricted to the PL subregion and evaluated whether oxytocin receptor (OTR) activation is required for OT to have an anxiolytic effect. We also examined whether OT interacts with GABA in the mPFC to reduce anxiety and investigated the extent to which OT in the mPFC affects activation of mPFC GABA neurons as well as neuronal activation in the amygdala, a primary target of the mPFC which is part of the neural network regulating anxiety. We found that OT reduced anxiety-like behavior when delivered to the PL, but not infralimbic or anterior cingulate subregions of the mPFC. The anxiolytic effect of OT in the PL mPFC was blocked by pretreatment with an OTR, but not a vasopressin receptor, antagonist as well as with a GABA
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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.