oxytocin

Private oxytocin supply and its receptors in the hypothalamus for social avoidance learning

Many animals live in complex social groups. To survive, it is essential to know who to avoid and who to interact. Although naïve mice are naturally attracted to any adult conspecifics, a single defeat experience could elicit social avoidance towards the aggressor for days. The neural mechanisms underlying the behavior switch from social approach to social avoidance remains incompletely understood. Here, we identify oxytocin neurons in the retrochiasmatic supraoptic nucleus (SOROXT) and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) expressing cells in the anterior subdivision of ventromedial hypothalamus, ventrolateral part (aVMHvlOXTR) as a key circuit motif for defeat-induced social avoidance learning. After defeat, aVMHvlOXTR cells drastically increase their responses to aggressor cues. This response change is functionally important as optogenetic activation of aVMHvlOXTR cells elicits time-locked social avoidance towards a benign social target whereas inactivating the cells suppresses defeat-induced social avoidance. Furthermore, OXTR in the aVMHvl is itself essential for the behavior change. Knocking out OXTR in the aVMHvl or antagonizing the receptor during defeat, but not during post-defeat social interaction, impairs defeat-induced social avoidance. aVMHvlOXTR receives its private supply of oxytocin from SOROXT cells. SOROXT is highly activated by the noxious somatosensory inputs associated with defeat. Oxytocin released from SOROXT depolarizes aVMHvlOXTR cells and facilitates their synaptic potentiation, and hence, increases aVMHvlOXTR cell responses to aggressor cues. Ablating SOROXT cells impairs defeat-induced social avoidance learning whereas activating the cells promotes social avoidance after a subthreshold defeat experience. Altogether, our study reveals an essential role of SOROXT-aVMHvlOXTR circuit in defeat-induced social learning and highlights the importance of hypothalamic oxytocin system in social ranking and its plasticity.

Love, death, and oxytocin: the challenges of mouse maternal care

Brain oxytocin as a modulator of social approach versus avoidance

Neurobiology of Narcolepsy: effects of the oxytocin system on cataplexy

Astrocytes and oxytocin interaction regulates amygdala neuronal network activity and related behaviors”

Oxytocin orchestrates social and emotional behaviors through modulation of neural circuits in brain structures such as the central amygdala (CeA). In this structure, the release of oxytocin modulates inhibitory circuits and subsequently suppresses fear responses and decreases anxiety levels. Using astrocyte-specific gain and loss of function approaches and pharmacology, we demonstrate that oxytocin signaling in the central amygdala relies on a subpopulation of astrocytes that represent a prerequisite for proper function of CeA circuits and adequate behavioral responses, both in rats and mice. Our work identifies astrocytes as crucial cellular intermediaries of oxytocinergic modulation in emotional behaviors related to anxiety or positive reinforcement. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a direct role of astrocytes in oxytocin signaling and challenges the long-held dogma that oxytocin signaling occurs exclusively via direct action on neurons in the central nervous system.

Behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of social cooperation

Human society operates on large-scale cooperation and shared norms of fairness. However, individual differences in cooperation and incentives to free-riding on others’ cooperation make large-scale cooperation fragile and can lead to reduced social-welfare. Deciphering the neural codes representing potential rewards/costs for self and others is crucial for understanding social decision-making and cooperation. I will first talk about how we integrate computational modeling with functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural representation of social value and the modulation by oxytocin, a nine-amino acid neuropeptide, in participants evaluating monetary allocations to self and other (self-other allocations). Then I will introduce our recent studies examining the neurobiological mechanisms underlying intergroup decision-making using hyper-scanning, and share with you how we alter intergroup decisions using psychological manipulations and pharmacological challenge. Finally, I will share with you our on-going project that reveals how individual cooperation spreads through human social networks. Our results help to better understand the neurocomputational mechanism underlying interpersonal and intergroup decision-making.

Fish Feelings: Emotional states in larval zebrafish

I’ll give an overview of internal - or motivational - states in larval zebrafish. Specifically we will focus on the role of the Oxytocin system in regulating the detection of, and behavioral responses to, conspecifics. The appeal here is that Oxytocin has likely conserved roles across all vertebrates, including humans, and that the larval zebrafish allows us to study some of the general principles across the brain but nonetheless at cellular resolution. This allows us to propose mechanistic models of emotional states.

Role of Oxytocin in regulating microglia functions to prevent brain damage of the developing brain

Every year, 30 million infants worldwide are delivered after intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) and 15 million are born preterm. These two conditions are the leading causes of ante/perinatal stress and brain injury responsible for neurocognitive and behavioral disorders in more than 9 million children each year. Both prematurity and IUGR are associated with perinatal systemic inflammation, a key factor associated with neuroinflammation and identified to be the best predictor of subsequent neurological impairments. Most of pharmacological candidates have failed to demonstrate any beneficial effect to prevent perinatal brain damage. In contrast, environmental enrichment based on developmental care, skin-to-skin contact and vocal/music intervention appears to confer positive effects on brain structure and function. However, mechanisms underlying these effects remain unknown. There is strong evidence that an adverse environment during pregnancy and the perinatal period can influence hormonal responses of the newborn with long-lasting neurobehavioral consequences in infancy and adulthood. Excessive cortisol release in response to perinatal stress induces pro-inflammatory and brain-programming effects. These deleterious effects are known to be balanced by Oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide playing a key role during the perinatal period and parturition, in social behavior and regulating the central inflammatory response to injury in the adult brain. Using a rodent model of IUGR associated with perinatal brain damage, we recently reported that Carbetocin, a brain permeable long-lasting OT receptor (OTR) agonist, was associated with a significant reduction of activated microglia, the primary immune cells of the brain. Moreover this reduced microglia reactivity was associated to a long-term neuroprotection. These findings make OT a promising candidate for neonatal neuroprotection through neuroinflammation regulation. However, the causality between the endogenous OT and central inflammation response to injury has not been established and will be further studied by the lab.

Social transmission of maternal behavior

Maternal care is profoundly important for mammalian survival, and in many species requires the contribution of non-biological parents, or alloparents. In the absence of partum and post-partum related hormonal changes, alloparents acquire maternal skills from experience, by yet unknown mechanisms. One critical molecular signal for maternal behavior is oxytocin, a hormone centrally released by hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Do experiences that induce maternal behavior act by engaging PVN oxytocin neurons? To answer this, we used virgin female mice, animals that in the wild live in colonies with experienced mothers and their pups, helping with pup care. We replicated this setup in the lab, and we continuously monitored homecage behavior of virgin mice co-housed for days with a mother and litter, synchronized with recordings from virgin PVN cells, including from oxytocin neurons. Mothers engaged virgins in maternal care in part by shepherding virgins towards the nest, ensuring their proximity to pups, and in part by self-generating pup retrieval episodes, demonstrating maternal behavior to virgins. The frequency of shepherding and of dam retrievals correlates with virgin's subsequent ability to retrieve pups, a quintessential mouse maternal skill. These social interactions activated virgin PVN and gated behaviorally-relevant cortical plasticity for pup vocalizations. Thus, rodents can acquire maternal behavior by social transmission, and our results describe a mechanism for adapting brains of adult caregivers to infant needs via endogenous oxytocin.

Sensory modalities driving social behavior via the central oxytocin system

The oxytocin system in the embodied brain: Social touch and communicative behaviours

Plasticity in hypothalamic circuits for oxytocin release

Mammalian babies are “sensory traps” for parents. Various sensory cues from the newborn are tremendously efficient in triggering parental responses in caregivers. We recently showed that core aspects of maternal behavior such as pup retrieval in response to infant vocalizations rely on active learning of auditory cues from pups facilitated by the neurohormone oxytocin (OT). Release of OT from the hypothalamus might thus help induce recognition of different infant cues but it is unknown what sensory stimuli can activate OT neurons. I performed unprecedented in vivo whole-cell and cell-attached recordings from optically-identified OT neurons in awake dams. I found that OT neurons, but not other hypothalamic cells, increased their firing rate after playback of pup distress vocalizations. Using anatomical tracing approaches and channelrhodopsin-assisted circuit mapping, I identified the projections and brain areas (including inferior colliculus, auditory cortex, and posterior intralaminar thalamus) relaying auditory information about social sounds to OT neurons. In hypothalamic brain slices, when optogenetically stimulating thalamic afferences to mimic high-frequency thalamic discharge, observed in vivo during pup calls playback, I found that thalamic activity led to long-term depression of synaptic inhibition in OT neurons. This was mediated by postsynaptic NMDARs-induced internalization of GABAARs. Therefore, persistent activation of OT neurons following pup calls in vivo is likely mediated by disinhibition. This gain modulation of OT neurons by infant cries, may be important for sustaining motivation. Using a genetically-encoded OT sensor, I demonstrated that pup calls were efficient in triggering OT release in downstream motivational areas. When thalamus projections to hypothalamus were inhibited with chemogenetics, dams exhibited longer latencies to retrieve crying pups, suggesting that the thalamus-hypothalamus noncanonical auditory pathway may be a specific circuit for the detection of social sounds, important for disinhibiting OT neurons, gating OT release in downstream brain areas, and speeding up maternal behavior.

DECODING THE OXYTOCIN PATHWAY IN CDKL5-DEFICIENCY DISORDER ​MOUSE MODEL

FENS Forum 2026

A BRAIN-WIDE ATLAS OF ASTROCYTIC OXYTOCIN RECEPTORS IN MOUSE AND RAT REVEALS A GLIAL BASIS FOR NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS MODULATION OF PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

FENS Forum 2026

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL AGING DRIVE SEX-DEPENDENT STRUCTURAL REMODELING OF OXYTOCINERGIC CIRCUITS IN THE MOUSE BRAIN

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN NEURON ACTIVATION AMELIORATES SOCIAL ISOLATION-INDUCED COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT AND AMYLOID-Β PATHOLOGY IN MICE MODEL OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

FENS Forum 2026

DUAL EFFECT OF OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR ACTIVATION ON ASTROCYTE GLUTAMATE RELEASE

FENS Forum 2026

LIT-002, A HIGHLY POTENT AND SELECTIVE NON-PEPTIDE OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR AGONIST FOR DURABLE RELIEF OF NEUROPATHIC PAIN

FENS Forum 2026

MEDIAL PREOPTIC OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR-POSITIVE NEURONS CONTROL SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN RATS

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN MODULATES CENTRAL DESCENDING PAIN PATHWAYS IN A RAT MODEL OF PROVOKED VULVODYNIA

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCINERGIC CORTICAL CIRCUITS FOR MOTHER-INFANT COORDINATION DURING NURSING

FENS Forum 2026

STRESS INDUCES OXYTOCIN-GΑI-DEPENDENT REMODELING OF ASTROCYTES TO SHAPE NEURONAL RESPONSE IN THE AMYGDALA

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCINERGIC SYSTEM AND SUCKLING BEHAVIOR IN MICE NEWBORNS

FENS Forum 2026

AGE-DEPENDENT EFFECTS OF OXYTOCIN ON BODY WEIGHT REGULATION DURING CHRONIC CORTICOSTERONE EXPOSURE

FENS Forum 2026

NON-CANONICAL SIGNALLING FUNCTION OF OXYTOCIN CELLS IN SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR CONTROL

FENS Forum 2026

ASTROCYTES MEDIATE A POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOP FOR OXYTOCIN

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN NEURONS DIFFERENTIALLY ENCODE SOCIAL AND NON-SOCIAL REWARDS

FENS Forum 2026

POSTNATAL DEVELOPMENT OF VASOPRESSINERGIC AND OXYTOCINERGIC SYSTEMS AND RELATED SOCIAL AND STEREOTYPED BEHAVIOURS IN A MOUSE MODEL OF RETT SYNDROME

FENS Forum 2026

PHOTORELEASE OF OXYTOCIN IN VIVO USING LIPID NANOVESICLES MODULATES SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN MODULATES SOCIAL SALIENCE NETWORK CONNECTIVITY IN AUTISM

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN BRAIN SIGNALLING AND MOTIVATED MATERNAL BEHAVIOURS IN RATS: CHANGES IN SOCIO-SEXUAL AND MOTIVATIONAL BRAIN REGIONS

FENS Forum 2026

SEX-DEPENDENT ANALGESIC EFFECTS OF OXYTOCIN IN MICE SUBJECTED TO THE HYPERALGESIC PRIMING MODEL

FENS Forum 2026

SPECIES AND SEX DIFFERENCE IN THE CORRELATION VASOPRESSIN V1A AND OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR DENSITY IN THE BRAIN OF <EM>RHABDOMYS PUMILLIO</EM> AND <EM>RHABDOMYS</EM> <EM>DILECTUS</EM>

FENS Forum 2026

SUPPRESSION OF AGGRESSION BY AN OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR POSITIVE MPOA–VMH PATHWAY

FENS Forum 2026

EARLY-LIFE SOCIAL AND METABOLIC STRESS DIFFERENTIALLY ENGAGE OXYTOCIN SIGNALLING TO SHAPE HIPPOCAMPAL MEMORY AND PLASTICITY IN JUVENILE MALES AND FEMALES

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR-MEDIATED MOLECULAR REGULATION OF TACTILE CORTICAL PLASTICITY DURING MOTHERHOOD

FENS Forum 2026

LIT-002, A HIGHLY POTENT AND SELECTIVE NONPEPTIDE OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR AGONIST THAT IMPROVES SOCIAL INTERACTION IN MOUSE MODELS OF AUTISM

FENS Forum 2026

TWO-PORES CHANNELS ARE KEY MEDIATORS OF OXYTOCIN SIGNALING AND MATERNAL BEHAVIOR

FENS Forum 2026

DECODING THE OXYTOCINERGIC AND BEHAVIORAL SIGNATURE OF MILK EJECTION

FENS Forum 2026

MODELING THE HUMAN OXYTOCIN SYSTEM: FROM HIPSC-DERIVED NEURONS TO IN VIVO INTEGRATION

FENS Forum 2026

CHOLINERGIC AND OXYTOCINERGIC NEUROMODULATION IN THE DEVELOPING HIPPOCAMPUS

FENS Forum 2026

REGULATION OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR BY THE OXYTOCIN-RECEPTOR EXPRESSING NEURONS IN THE LATERAL SEPTUM

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN SIGNALLING IN THE NUCLEUS INCERTUS: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSVENTRICULAR AROUSAL MODULATION

FENS Forum 2026

BREAKING THE INTERGENERATIONAL CYCLE OF MATERNAL STRESS WITH POSTPARTUM CARBETOCIN, AN OXYTOCIN ANALOGUE

FENS Forum 2026

OXYTOCIN NEURONAL DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN ZEBRAFISH: EFFECTS OF EARLY VALPROIC ACID EXPOSURE

FENS Forum 2026

Oxytocin and leptin crosstalk in the regulation of the energy balance

FENS Forum 2024

Oxytocin as a novel therapeutic target to reduce neuroinflammation and protect brain development following pediatric traumatic brain injury

FENS Forum 2024

Oxytocin and its receptors in the developing and adult mouse cerebellum

FENS Forum 2024

Oxytocin signaling regulates maternally-directed behavior during early life

FENS Forum 2024

Oxytocin's role in behavioural prioritization: Examining competing social and food needs in mice

FENS Forum 2024

Translational regulation of oxytocin receptor expression in the context of social behavior

FENS Forum 2024

Unveiling a novel neuropeptide interplay: Opposing actions of oxytocin and relaxin-3 on ventral hippocampal dentate gyrus neuronal activity – Rat and human studies

FENS Forum 2024