ArticleNature communications2024
Social buffering in rats reduces fear by oxytocin triggering sustained changes in central amygdala neuronal activity.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Maternal Social Support Reshapes the Offspring Brain Transcriptome to Buffer Prenatal Stress in Mice.Research square · 2026Article
- Distinct projections of PVN oxytocin neurons regulate the divergent defensive behaviors in response to social threat.Science advances · 2026Article
- Social touch-like tactile stimulation alleviates stress-induced anxiety-like behavior by enhancing the oxytocin level in the prefrontal cortex.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- State-dependent reward circuit modulation gates social buffering of stress.Research square · 2026Article
- From Molecules to Meaning: Integrating Neuropeptides, Sociostasis, and Hormesis in the Brain-Heart Axis.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- Interdependency between oxytocin and dopamine in trust-based learning in mice.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Negative allosteric modulation of mGlu7 disrupts fear memory reconsolidation and glutamatergic signaling in rat and human brain tissue.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Tracking conditioned fear in pair-housed mice using deep learning and real-time cue delivery.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- Case report: Non-linear evolution of oxytocin informs YBOCS changes post-DBS of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis for treatment resistant OCD.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The presence of a companion can reduce fear, but the neural mechanisms underlying this social buffering of fear are incompletely known. We studied social buffering of fear in male and female, and its encoding in the amygdala of male, auditory fear-conditioned rats. Pharmacological, opto,- and/or chemogenetic interventions showed that oxytocin signaling from hypothalamus-to-central amygdala projections underlied fear reduction acutely with a companion and social buffering retention 24 h later without a companion. Single-unit recordings with optetrodes in the central amygdala revealed fear-encoding neurons (showing increased conditioned stimulus-responses after fear conditioning) inhibited by social buffering and blue light-stimulated oxytocinergic hypothalamic projections. Other central amygdala neurons showed baseline activity enhanced by blue light and companion exposure, with increased conditioned stimulus responses that persisted without the companion. Social buffering of fear thus switches the conditioned stimulus from encoding "fear" to "safety" by oxytocin-mediated recruitment of a distinct group of central amygdala "buffer neurons".
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