ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2020
Extrahypothalamic oxytocin neurons drive stress-induced social vigilance and avoidance.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
91 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 131 citations in OpenAlex.
- Coordination of social behaviors by the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.The European journal of neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis control wakefulness in physiological and stressful conditions in mice.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Oxytocin in social conflict.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2026Article
- Altered Postnatal Chromatin Development in the Nucleus Accumbens Primes Enduring Stress Sensitivity.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Extended amygdala orchestrates social motivation in socially isolated mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin receptor neurons in the adBNST modulate maternal-like behavior in mice.Zoological research · 2026Article
- Distinct projections of PVN oxytocin neurons regulate the divergent defensive behaviors in response to social threat.Science advances · 2026Article
- Oxytocin selectively biases sensory-prefrontal communication through network-level suppression and theta coupling.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 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
- 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
- Stress History Modulates Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Neurons to Establish Resilience.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Effects of partial cage dividers on animal welfare and social behavior in California mice (Applied animal behaviour science · 2026Article
- Early life adversity impairs visually evoked innate defensive behaviors via oxytocin signaling.Communications biology · 2026Article
- SNAP-47 mediates somatic oxytocin dynamics in hypothalamic neurons.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Developmental PBDE exposure persistently impairs mast cell function in vivo and drives sex-specific morphological and transcriptional changes in bone marrow-derived mast cells.Environmental research · 2026Article
- Altered postnatal chromatin development in the nucleus accumbens primes lifelong stress sensitivity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Tactile stimulation reverses painful stimuli outcomes via PVN-VTA oxytocin circuitry and dopaminergic regulation.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
31 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
16 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Oxytocin increases the salience of both positive and negative social contexts and it is thought that these diverse actions on behavior are mediated in part through circuit-specific action. This hypothesis is based primarily on manipulations of oxytocin receptor function, leaving open the question of whether different populations of oxytocin neurons mediate different effects on behavior. Here we inhibited oxytocin synthesis in a stress-sensitive population of oxytocin neurons specifically within the medioventral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTmv). Oxytocin knockdown prevented social stress-induced increases in social vigilance and decreases in social approach. Viral tracing of BNSTmv oxytocin neurons revealed fibers in regions controlling defensive behaviors, including lateral hypothalamus, anterior hypothalamus, and anteromedial BNST (BNSTam). Oxytocin infusion into BNSTam in stress naïve mice increased social vigilance and reduced social approach. These results show that a population of extrahypothalamic oxytocin neurons plays a key role in controlling stress-induced social anxiety behaviors.
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