ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2018
Role of oxytocin in the ventral tegmental area in social reinforcement.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Direct Outputs from the Cerebellum to the Brainstem and Diencephalon in Mammals.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2024Pooled it
- Under or Absent Reporting of Light Stimuli in Testing of Anxiety-Like Behaviors in Rodents: The Need for Standardization.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Oxytocin promotes socially triggered cataplexy.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dichotomous Regulation of Social Behaviors by Nucleus Accumbens Neurons in Female and Male Syrian Hamsters.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Distinct subcircuits within the mesolimbic dopamine system encode the salience and valence of social stimuli.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Integrative neural mechanisms for social communication of learned vocal behavior.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2025Review
- Sex-dependent regulation of social avoidance by oxytocin signaling in the ventral tegmental area.Behavioural brain research · 2024Article
- Sex differences in the impact of social status on social reward and associated mesolimbic activation.Physiology & behavior · 2024Article
- The Role of Oxytocin in Early-Life-Stress-Related Neuropsychiatric Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- From Oxytocin to Compassion: The Saliency of Distress.Biology · 2023Article
- Romantic love evolved by co-opting mother-infant bonding.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Sex differences in chronic pain-induced mental disorders: Mechanisms of cerebral circuitry.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Review
- The Role of Intraamygdaloid Oxytocin and D2 Dopamine Receptors in Reinforcement in the Valproate-Induced Autism Rat Model.Biomedicines · 2022Article
- Oxytocin as a potential pharmacological tool to combat obesity.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2022Review
- Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (αMSH) modulates the rewarding properties of social interactions in an oxytocin receptor-dependent manner in Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus Auratus).Physiology & behavior · 2022Article
- Oxytocin receptor behavioral effects and cell types in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.Hormones and behavior · 2022Article
- Actions of feeding-related peptides on the mesolimbic dopamine system in regulation of natural and drug rewards.Addiction neuroscience · 2022Article
- Species-typical group size differentially influences social reward neural circuitry during nonreproductive social interactions.iScience · 2022Article
- Acute administration of fluoxetine increases social avoidance and risk assessment behaviors in a sex- and social stress-dependent manner in Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2022Article
- Oxytocin and Food Intake Control: Neural, Behavioral, and Signaling Mechanisms.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
The rewarding properties of social interactions play a critical role in the development and maintenance of social relationships, and deficits in social reward are associated with various psychiatric disorders. In the present study, we used a novel Operant Social Preference (OSP) task to investigate the reinforcing properties of social interactions under conditions of high or low reward value, and high or low behavioral effort in male Syrian hamsters. Further, we investigated the role of oxytocin (OT) in a key structure of the mesolimbic reward system, the ventral tegmental area (VTA), in mediating the reinforcing properties of social interaction. Adult male hamsters were placed in a three-chambered apparatus, and allowed access to either a social chamber containing an unrestrained conspecific or a non-social chamber, by pushing through a one-way entry, vertical-swing door. Increasing the duration of social interaction (reward value) decreased the frequency of entering the social interaction chambers, whereas decreasing the duration of social interaction conversely increased the frequency of entries. Moreover, increasing behavioral effort required to access social interaction decreased the frequency of entries, especially under conditions when the duration of social interaction was only 5 s. OT injected into the VTA decreased the frequency of entering social interaction chambers in a manner similar to that observed when duration was increased, whereas injection of an OT receptor antagonist in the VTA increased the frequency of seeking social interaction. Taken together, these data support the hypothesis that activation of OT receptors in the VTA are critical for the reinforcing properties of social interactions. Furthermore, social interactions may exhibit duration and cost dependent reinforcing effects on behavior similar to those observed with food and drugs of abuse.
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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.