ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020
Social approach and social vigilance are differentially regulated by oxytocin receptors in the nucleus accumbens.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers.
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Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 113 citations in OpenAlex.
- Loss of oxytocin receptor function disrupts neural signatures of pair bonding and fidelity in the nucleus accumbens.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Proximity in mice induced by an auditory-conditioned stimulus.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Untangling Mephedrone-Induced Social Reward in Rats-The Involvement of Oxytocin and Vasopressin VGenes, brain, and behavior · 2026Article
- Neural basis of social hierarchy across species.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Distinct projections of PVN oxytocin neurons regulate the divergent defensive behaviors in response to social threat.Science advances · 2026Article
- Social Novelty Recruits a Dysfunctional Nucleus Accumbens Ensemble That Drives Social Avoidance in abioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The oxytocin system mediates behavioral and neurobiological alterations associated with early adversity.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Sex-specific regulation of social play in juvenile rats by oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and oxytocin signaling in the nucleus accumbens.Hormones and behavior · 2026Article
- Social attachment shapes interbrain synchrony.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin neurons in the anterior and posterior paraventricular nucleus have distinct behavioral functions and electrophysiological profiles.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Affiliation in mice induced by an auditory-conditioned stimulus.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- I've got a friend somewhere: control of social behavior across striatal subregions.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- Social interaction shapes and boosts second language learning: virtual reality can show us how.NPJ science of learning · 2025Review
- Tactile stimulation reverses painful stimuli outcomes via PVN-VTA oxytocin circuitry and dopaminergic regulation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Deficiency of Shank3 in the nucleus accumbens reveals a loss of social-specific motivation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Natural variation in the oxytocin receptor gene predicts social observation in female prairie voles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- CRISPR-mediated knockdown of oxytocin receptor in extended amygdala reduces stress-induced social avoidance in female California mice.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
- Oxytocin neurons in the anterior and posterior paraventricular nucleus have distinct behavioral functions and electrophysiological profiles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- CRISPR-mediated knockdown of oxytocin receptor in extended amygdala reduces stress-induced social avoidance in female California mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- An oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism is associated with distinct neural responses to mating encounters in male prairie voles.Hormones and behavior · 2025Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Oxytocin is currently being considered as a novel therapeutic for anxiety disorders due to its ability to promote affiliative behaviors. In the nucleus accumbens (NAc) activation of oxytocin receptors (OTR) promotes social approach (time spent near an unfamiliar individual). Here, we show that stressful social experiences reduce the expression of NAc OTR mRNA, coinciding with decreases in social approach. Social stressors also increase social vigilance, characterized as orienting to an unfamiliar individual without approaching. Vigilance is a key component of behavioral inhibition, a personality trait that is a risk factor for anxiety disorders. To understand whether NAc OTR can modulate both social approach and vigilance, we use pharmacological approaches to assess the impact of activation or inhibition of NAc OTR downstream pathways on these behaviors. First, we show that in unstressed male and female California mice, inhibition of OTR by an unbiased antagonist (L-368,899) reduces social approach but does not induce social vigilance. Next, we show that infusion of Atosiban, an OTR-Gq antagonist/OTR-Gi agonist, has the same effect in unstressed females. Finally, we show that Carbetocin, a biased OTR-Gq agonist, increases social approach in stressed females while simultaneously inhibiting social vigilance. Taken together these data suggest that OTR in the NAc differentially modulate social approach and social vigilance, primarily through an OTR-Gq mechanism. Importantly, pharmacological inhibition of OTR alone is insufficient to induce vigilance in unstressed mice, suggesting that mechanisms modulating social approach may be distinct from mechanisms modulating social vigilance.
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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.