Oxytocin: the Great Facilitator of Life
By Heon-Jin Lee, A. Macbeth, J. Pagani, W. Scott, Y. rd. Progress in neurobiology, 2009
1,067 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Oxytocin (Oxt) is a nonapeptide hormone best known for its role in lactation and parturition. Since 1906 when its uterine-contracting properties were described until 50 years later when its sequence was elucidated, research focused on its peripheral roles in reproduction. Only over the past several decades have researchers focused on what functions Oxt might have in the brain, the subject of this review. Immunohistochemical studies revealed that magnocellular neurons of the hypothalamic paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei are the neurons of origin for the Oxt released from the posterior pituitary. Smaller cells in various parts of the brain, as well as release from magnocellular dendrites, provide the Oxt responsible for modulating various behaviors at its only identified receptor. Although Oxt is implicated in a variety of “non-social” behaviors, such as learning, anxiety, feeding and pain perception, it is Oxt’s roles in various social behaviors that have come to the fore recently. Oxt is important for social memory and attachment, sexual and maternal behavior, and aggression. Recent work implicates Oxt in human bonding and trust as well. Human disorders characterized by aberrant social interactions, such as autism and schizophrenia, may also involve Oxt expression. Many, if not most, of Oxt’s functions, from social interactions (affiliation, aggression) and sexual behavior to eventual parturition, lactation and maternal behavior, may be viewed as specifically facilitating
Subfields: Pharmacy, Social Psychology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e71dce41c5e994a29a2b85dbb85be4f293d2196a
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Citations in the corpus
- Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans (2010, background): “There is unprecedented interest in the role of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) as a key effector of human social behaviors (Lee et al., 2009).”
- Effects of isotocin on social responses in a cooperatively breeding fish (2012, background): “…homologues; e.g. isotocin in teleost fish, mesotocin in birds and reptiles) represents a promising candidate system for the modulation of social behaviour (for recent reviews see: Donaldson & Young 2008; Goodson 2008; Lee et al. 2009; Ross & Young 2009; Goodson & Thompson 2010; Insel 2010).”
- A common allele in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) impacts prosocial temperament and human hypothalamic-limbic structure and function (2010, methodology): “The analysis of TPQ data confirmed a well-known main effect of gender on RD [F(1,300) = 22.”