ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2019
Early nurture epigenetically tunes the oxytocin receptor.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05412524 (Impact of Reading on Endogenous Oxytocin System of Preterm Infants), which is not on this map. Cited by 81 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
Impact of Reading on Endogenous Oxytocin System of Preterm Infants
Who cites it
81 citing papers in PubMed, 180 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maternal care is associated with neural and behavioral effects of oxytocin administration during empathic accuracy in schizophrenia and controls.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Trial
- An epigenetic framework for understanding contextual influences on neural and socio-emotional development: Narrative review and case-study of the oxytocin receptor.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- A Demographic History of a Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster) Breeding Colony (2004-2020).Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2026Article
- A Demographic History of a Prairie Vole (bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Parental behavior, adult attachment, and DNA methylation of the MT2 oxytocin receptor gene region - The moderating role of neuroticism.PloS one · 2026Article
- A holistic review of fatherhood in humans and non-human animals: mechanisms of fatherhood, effects on fathers themselves, and interactions of fathers with others.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Convergence of Early-Life Stress and Autism Spectrum Disorder on the Epigenetics of Genes Key to the HPA Axis.Biology · 2025Review
- Early Life Mild Adversity Affects in a Sexually Dimorphic Way the Oxytocinergic System Reducing Close Social Interaction in Adult Male Rats.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Article
- Oxytocin, Vasopressin and Stress: A Hormetic Perspective.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Oxytocin treatment at birth accelerates an epigenetic shift in the oxytocin receptor gene in the maternal brain.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Stress and parental behaviors.Neuroscience research · 2025Review
- Interplay between prenatal bisphenol exposure, postnatal maternal care, and offspring sex in predicting DNA methylation relevant to anxiety-like behavior in rats.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- A review of the effects of different types of social behaviors on the recruitment of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters in the nucleus accumbens.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- The impact of the early environment on oxytocin receptor epigenetics and potential therapeutic implications.Pediatric research · 2025Review
- Dynamic duos: learning to care as a pair in the biparental prairie vole (Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Effects of human-animal interaction on salivary and urinary oxytocin in children and dogs.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Critical Windows: Exploring the Association Between Perinatal Trauma, Epigenetics, and Chronic Pain.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2024Review
- Epigenetic regulation of the oxytocin system as an indicator of adaptation to over-controlling parenting and psychosocial functioning in adulthood.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Grandmotherhood is associated with reduced OXTR DNA methylation.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Paternal absence and increased caregiving independently and interactively shape the development of male prairie voles at subadult and adult life stages.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
21 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
12 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Mammalian sociality is regulated in part by the neuropeptide oxytocin. In prairie voles, subtle variation in early life experience changes oxytocin receptor-mediated social behaviors. We report that low levels of early care in voles leads to de novo DNA methylation at specific regulatory sites in the oxytocin receptor gene (Oxtr), impacting gene expression and protein distribution in the nucleus accumbens. DNA methylation state of the blood predicts expression in the brain indicating the utility of the blood as a biomarker for the transcription state of the brain. These experience-sensitive CpG sites are conserved in humans, are related to gene expression in the brain, and have been associated with psychiatric disorders and individual differences in neural response to social stimuli. These results identify a mechanism by which early care regulates later displays of typical prairie vole social behavior and suggest the potential for nurture driven epigenetic tuning of OXTR in humans.
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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.