ArticleNature neuroscience2025
Oxytocin modulates respiratory heart rate variability through a hypothalamus-brainstem-heart neuronal pathway.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- From Molecules to Meaning: Integrating Neuropeptides, Sociostasis, and Hormesis in the Brain-Heart Axis.Current issues in molecular biology · 2026Review
- Oxytocin and Vasopressin Cross Talk Within the Brain Increases Blood Pressure.Circulation research · 2026Article
- Why The Polyvagal Theory Is Untenable: An international expert evaluation of the polyvagal theory and commentary upon Porges, S.W. (2025). Polyvagal theory: current status, clinical applications, and future directions. Clin. Neuropsychiatry, 22(3), 169-184.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2026Article
- Integrating the Contrasting Perspectives Between the Constrained Disorder Principle and Deterministic Optical Nanoscopy: Enhancing Information Extraction from Imaging of Complex Systems.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Circuit logic of oxytocin and vasopressin complementary actions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Integration of laryngeal and cardiorespiratory control by the dorsomedial and perifornical hypothalamus in anaesthetised rats.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Pathophysiological frameworks and emerging preventative strategies in SUDEP.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Review
- Oxytocin neurons drive melanocortin circuit maturation via vesicle release during a neonatal critical period.PLoS biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The variation in heart rate in phase with breathing is called respiratory heart rate variability (RespHRV). Relaxation and positive socio-emotional states can amplify RespHRV, yet the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. Here we identify a hypothalamus-brainstem neuronal pathway in rodents through which oxytocin (OT) amplifies RespHRV during calming behavior. OT neurons from the caudal paraventricular nucleus in the hypothalamus regulate the activity of a subgroup of inhibitory neurons in the pre-Bötzinger complex, the brainstem nucleus that generates the inspiratory rhythm. Specifically, OT enhances the glycinergic input from OT-receptor-expressing neurons in the pre-Bötzinger complex to cardiac-innervating parasympathetic neurons in the nucleus ambiguus during inspiration. This leads to amplified respiratory modulation of parasympathetic activity to the heart, thereby enhancing RespHRV. We show that OT neurons participate in the restoration of RespHRV amplitude during recovery from stress in mice, indicating that OT acts centrally to regulate cardiac activity during a calming behavior.
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