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Oxytocin promotes functional coupling between paraventricular nucleus and both sympathetic and parasympathetic cardioregulatory nuclei
Institution:1. Northeastern University, United States;2. The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, United States;3. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands;4. Columbia University, United States;5. The University of Chicago, United States;6. University of Illinois at Chicago, United States;7. Case Western Reserve University, United States;8. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States;9. Northwestern University, United States;1. Department of Child and Adolescent Development, California State University, Northridge, United States;2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, United States;3. David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United States;4. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, United States;5. Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, United States;6. Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Abstract:The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) facilitates prosocial behavior and selective sociality. In the context of stress, OXT also can down-regulate hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity, leading to consideration of OXT as a potential treatment for many socioaffective disorders. However, the mechanisms through which administration of exogenous OXT modulates social behavior in stressful environmental contexts are not fully understood. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that autonomic pathways are components of the mechanisms through which OXT aids the recruitment of social resources in stressful contexts that may elicit mobilized behavioral responses. Female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) underwent a stressor (walking in shallow water) following pretreatment with intraperitoneal OXT (0.25 mg/kg) or OXT antagonist (OXT-A, 20 mg/kg), and were allowed to recover with or without their sibling cagemate. Administration of OXT resulted in elevated OXT concentrations in plasma, but did not dampen the HPA axis response to a stressor. However, OXT, but not OXT-A, pretreatment prevented the functional coupling, usually seen in the absence of OXT, between paraventricular nucleus (PVN) activity as measured by c-Fos immunoreactivity and HPA output (i.e. corticosterone release). Furthermore, OXT pretreatment resulted in functional coupling between PVN activity and brain regions regulating both sympathetic (i.e. rostral ventrolateral medulla) and parasympathetic (i.e. dorsal vagal complex and nucleus ambiguous) branches of the autonomic nervous system. These findings suggest that OXT increases central neural control of autonomic activity, rather than strictly dampening HPA axis activity, and provides a potential mechanism through which OXT may facilitate adaptive and context-dependent behavioral and physiological responses to stressors.
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