ArticleNature communications2017
Oxytocin enhances observational fear in mice.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 167 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chronic oxytocin administration as a tool for investigation and treatment: A cross-disciplinary systematic review.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Individual differences in prosocial learning are represented in the hippocampal dorsal CA1.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Distinct projections of PVN oxytocin neurons regulate the divergent defensive behaviors in response to social threat.Science advances · 2026Article
- Oxytocin receptor neurons in the paraventricular thalamus as a nexus for social behaviour and fear.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Increased c-Fos expression in lateral habenula during social transmission of negative valence in prairie voles.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Early life adversity impairs visually evoked innate defensive behaviors via oxytocin signaling.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Pupillometry and brain-wide c-Fos mapping uncover multimodal mirror emotional contagion related networks of mice.iScience · 2026Article
- Circuit logic of oxytocin and vasopressin complementary actions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Vicarious learned helplessness: a translationally relevant novel model of stress contagion elucidating sex-dependent prefrontal cortex pathology.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sex Differences in Pain Contagion Determined by the Balance of Oxytocin and Corticosterone in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Rodents.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Article
- Stranger-directed consolation-like behavior in mice in a test of social decision making.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- Dysfunction of the paraventricular thalamus-prelimbic cortex circuit underlies maternal separation-induced deficits in contagious pain.Science advances · 2025Article
- Fear Synchrony of Mouse Dyads: Interaction of Sex Composition and Stress.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Brain circuits that regulate social behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Interpreting mouse's intention from analysis of prosocial behavior.Lab animal · 2025Article
- The lateralized LC-NAergic system distinguishes vicarious versus direct fear in mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Cortical representations of affective pain shape empathic fear in male mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Rescue-like behavior in a bystander mouse toward anesthetized conspecifics promotes arousal via a tongue-brain connection.Science advances · 2025Article
- Emotions spread like contagious diseases.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Oxytocin shortens spreading depolarization-induced periorbital allodynia.The journal of headache and pain · 2024Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Empathy is fundamental to human relations, but its neural substrates remain largely unknown. Here we characterize the involvement of oxytocin in the capacity of mice to display emotional state-matching, an empathy-like behavior. When exposed to a familiar conspecific demonstrator in distress, an observer mouse becomes fearful, as indicated by a tendency to freeze and subsequent efforts to escape. Both intranasal oxytocin administration and chemogenetic stimulation of oxytocin neurons render males sensitive to the distress of an unfamiliar mouse. Acute intranasal oxytocin penetrates the brain and enhances cellular activity within the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas chronic administration produces long-term facilitation of observational fear and downregulates oxytocin receptor expression in the amygdala. None of these manipulations affect fear acquired as a result of direct experience with the stressor. Hence, these results implicate oxytocin in observational fear in mice (rather than fear itself) and provide new avenues for examining the neural substrates of empathy.
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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.