ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2019
Sex-dependent regulation of social reward by oxytocin receptors in the ventral tegmental area.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of intranasal oxytocin on social reward processing in humans: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Age-dependent effects of oxytocin in brain regions enriched with oxytocin receptors.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Trial
- Kinetics of oxytocin effects on amygdala and striatal reactivity vary between women and men.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Oxytocin preserves excitatory responsiveness of VTA dopaminergic neurons in PTSD model rats.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2026Article
- 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
- Lifestyle enrichment through social and cognitive engagement in later life: its associations with frailty trajectories and risk over 11 years.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Community-Based Group Exercises and Depression Prevention Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: A Longitudinal Analysis.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2025Article
- Dopamine dynamics underlying maternal motivation and reward.Neuroscience research · 2025Review
- Mechanistic and translational insights from preclinical cocaine choice procedures on the economic substitutability of cocaine and nondrug reinforcers.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- An oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism is associated with distinct neural responses to mating encounters in male prairie voles.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- Article
- PVN-NAc Shell-VP Circuit OT and OTR Neurons Regulate Pair Bonding via D2R and D1R.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 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
- Stress drives a switch in sex preference.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Integrative neural mechanisms for social communication of learned vocal behavior.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2025Review
- The effects of different types of social interactions on the electrophysiology of neurons in the nucleus accumbens in rodents.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Review
- Sex-dependent regulation of social avoidance by oxytocin signaling in the ventral tegmental area.Behavioural brain research · 2024Article
- Understanding Others' Distress Through Past Experiences: The Role of Memory Engram Cells in Observational Fear.Advances in neurobiology · 2024Review
- The Cerebellum-Ventral Tegmental Area Microcircuit and Its Implications for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Narrative Review.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Social reward is critical for social relationships, and yet we know little about the characteristics of social interactions that are rewarding or the neural mechanisms underlying that reward. Here, we investigate the sex-dependent role of oxytocin receptors within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in mediating the magnitude and valence of social reward. Operant and classical conditioning tests were used to measure social reward associated with same-sex social interactions. The effects of oxytocin, selective oxytocin receptor agonists, antagonists, and vehicle injected into the VTA on social reward was determined in male and female Syrian hamsters. The colocalization of FOS and oxytocin in sites that project to the VTA following social interaction was also determined. Females find same-sex social interactions more rewarding than males and activation of oxytocin receptors in the VTA is critical for social reward in females, as well as males. These studies provide support for the hypothesis that there is an inverted U relationship between the duration of social interaction and social reward, mediated by oxytocin; and that in females the dose-response relationship is initiated at lower doses compared with males. Same-sex social interaction is more rewarding in females than in males, and an inverted U relationship mediated by oxytocin may have a critical role in assigning positive and negative valence to social stimuli. Understanding these sex differences in social reward processing may be essential for understanding the sex differences in the prevalence of many psychiatric disorders and the development of gender-specific treatments of neuropsychiatric disorders.
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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.