ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2022
Oxytocin-a social peptide? Deconstructing the evidence.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Call for Drug Therapies for the Treatment of Social Behavior Disorders in Dementia: Systematic Review of Evidence and State of the Art.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Oxytocin, Vasopressin and Stress: A Hormetic Perspective.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Oxytocin Reduces Noradrenergic-Induced Opioid-Like Withdrawal Symptoms in Individuals on Opioid Agonist Therapy.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Oxygen is an essential gasotransmitter directly sensed via protein gasoreceptors.Animal models and experimental medicine · 2024Article
- Long range projections of oxytocin neurons in the marmoset brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- From Parental Behavior to Sexual Function: Recent Advances in Oxytocin Research.Current sexual health reports · 2024Review
- Spatial transcriptomics reveal basal sex differences in supraoptic nucleus gene expression of adult rats related to cell signaling and ribosomal pathways.Biology of sex differences · 2023Article
- Neuroimaging of social motivation during winning and losing: Associations with social anhedonia across the psychosis spectrum.Neuropsychologia · 2023Article
- A ligand-receptor interactome atlas of the zebrafish.iScience · 2023Article
- Mentalization, Oxytocin, and Cortisol in the General Population.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Oxytocin levels and self-reported anxiety during interactions between humans and cows.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Oxytocin does not stand alone.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Oxytocin-a social peptide? Deconstructing the evidence.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Effects of intranasal oxytocin on the self-perception and anxiety of singers during a simulated public singing performance: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Oxytocin neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and fear empathy among male mice.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPNArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In this paper, we analyse the claim that oxytocin is a 'social neuropeptide'. This claim originated from evidence that oxytocin was instrumental in the initiation of maternal behaviour and it was extended to become the claim that oxytocin has a key role in promoting social interactions between individuals. We begin by considering the structure of the scientific literature on this topic, identifying closely interconnected clusters of papers on particular themes. We then analyse this claim by considering evidence of four types as generated by these clusters: (i) mechanistic studies in animal models, designed to understand the pathways involved in the behavioural effects of centrally administered oxytocin; (ii) evidence from observational studies indicating an association between oxytocin signalling pathways and social behaviour; (iii) evidence from intervention studies, mainly involving intranasal oxytocin administration; and (iv) evidence from translational studies of patients with disorders of social behaviour. We then critically analyse the most highly cited papers in each segment of the evidence; we conclude that, if these represent the best evidence, then the evidence for the claim is weak. This article is part of the theme issue 'Interplays between oxytocin and other neuromodulators in shaping complex social behaviours'.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.