首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
     


Sex differences in oxytocin receptor binding in forebrain regions: Correlations with social interest in brain region- and sex- specific ways
Authors:Kelly M. Dumais  Remco BredewoldThomas E. Mayer  Alexa H. Veenema
Affiliation:Neurobiology of Social Behavior Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
Abstract:Social interest reflects the motivation to approach a conspecific for the assessment of social cues and is measured in rats by the amount of time spent investigating conspecifics. Virgin female rats show lower social interest towards unfamiliar juvenile conspecifics than virgin male rats. We hypothesized that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) may modulate sex differences in social interest because of the involvement of OT in pro-social behaviors. We determined whether there are sex differences in OT system parameters in the brain and whether these parameters would correlate with social interest. We also determined whether estrus phase or maternal experience would alter low social interest and whether this would correlate with changes in OT system parameters. Our results show that regardless of estrus phase, females have significantly lower OT receptor (OTR) binding densities than males in the majority of forebrain regions analyzed, including the nucleus accumbens, caudate putamen, lateral septum, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, medial amygdala, and ventromedial hypothalamus. Interestingly, male social interest correlated positively with OTR binding densities in the medial amygdala, while female social interest correlated negatively with OTR binding densities in the central amygdala. Proestrus/estrus females showed similar social interest to non-estrus females despite increased OTR binding densities in several forebrain areas. Maternal experience had no immediate or long-lasting effects on social interest or OT brain parameters except for higher OTR binding in the medial amygdala in primiparous females. Together, these findings demonstrate that there are robust sex differences in OTR binding densities in multiple forebrain regions of rats and that OTR binding densities correlate with social interest in brain region- and sex-specific ways.
Keywords:AIP, agranular insular cortex   NACCa, anterior nucleus accumbens   CA1, CA1 of the hippocampus   CeA, central amygdala   CPUd, dorsal caudate putamen   BNSTdl, dorsolateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis   LSi, intermediate lateral septum   MeA, medial amygdala   CPUm, medial caudate putamen   MPOA, medial preoptic area   NACC, nucleus accumbens   OT, oxytocin   OTR, oxytocin receptor   PVN, paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus   BNSTp, posterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis   NACCp, posterior nucleus accumbens   SON, supraoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus   LSv, ventral lateral septum   VMH, ventromedial hypothalamus
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录!
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号