ArticleScientific reports2018
Oxytocin curbs calorie intake via food-specific increases in the activity of brain areas that process reward and establish cognitive control.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Neural Correlates of Anti-appetite Medications: An fMRI Meta-analysis.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Oxytocin Effects on Food Stimulus Processing and Food Intake in Females With or Without Binge Eating Disorder.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Trial
- Oxytocin differentially modulates reward system responses to social and non-social incentives.Psychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- Intranasal Oxytocin for Obesity.NEJM evidence · 2024Trial
- Oxytocinergic modulation of speech production-a double-blind placebo-controlled fMRI study.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2023Trial
- Oxytocin Administration Increases Proactive Control in Men with Overweight or Obesity: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Study.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2021Trial
- Investigating resting brain perfusion abnormalities and disease target-engagement by intranasal oxytocin in women with bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder and healthy controls.Translational psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Oxytocin reduces the functional connectivity between brain regions involved in eating behavior in men with overweight and obesity.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2020Trial
- Musical Training Amplifies Food Cue-Related Interference in Working Memory.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Oxytocin levels do not change around a meal and correlate with reward-driven caloric consumption in adults with obesity.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Social bonds and health: exploring the impact of social relations on oxytocin and brain-gut communication in shaping obesity.Gut microbes · 2025Article
- The Oxytocin System and Implications for Oxytocin Deficiency in Hypothalamic-Pituitary Disease.Endocrine reviews · 2025Review
- Effects of systemic oxytocin receptor activation and blockade on risky decision making in female and male rats.Behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- The Role of the Arcuate Nucleus in Regulating Hunger and Satiety in Prader-Willi Syndrome.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Brain serotonin, oxytocin, and their interaction: Relevance for eating disorders.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2025Review
- Eating behavior patterns, metabolic parameters and circulating oxytocin levels in patients with obesity: an exploratory study.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2025Observational
- Plasma oxytocin and leptin in relation to disordered eating: evidence from non-linear modeling across metabolic obesity phenotypes.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Oxytocin/Oxytocin Receptor Signalling in the Gastrointestinal System: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Understanding oxytocin in human physiology and pathophysiology: A path towards therapeutics.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Review
- A comprehensive review of genetic causes of obesity.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The hypothalamic neurohormone oxytocin decreases food intake via largely unexplored mechanisms. We investigated the central nervous mediation of oxytocin's hypophagic effect in comparison to its impact on the processing of generalized rewards. Fifteen fasted normal-weight, young men received intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) or placebo before functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measurements of brain activity during exposure to food stimuli and a monetary incentive delay task (MID). Subsequently, ad-libitum breakfast intake was assessed. Oxytocin compared to placebo increased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, anterior cingulate, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices in response to high- vs. low-calorie food images in the fasted state, and reduced calorie intake by 12%. During anticipation of monetary rewards, oxytocin compared to placebo augmented striatal, orbitofrontal and insular activity without altering MID performance. We conclude that during the anticipation of generalized rewards, oxytocin stimulates dopaminergic reward-processing circuits. In contrast, oxytocin restrains food intake by enhancing the activity of brain regions that exert cognitive control, while concomitantly increasing the activity of structures that process food reward value. This pattern points towards a specific role of oxytocin in the regulation of eating behaviour in humans that might be of relevance for potential clinical applications.
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