Abstract
The neuropeptide oxytocin plays a critical role in social cognition and behavior. A number of studies using intranasal administration have demonstrated that oxytocin improves social perception. However, little is known about the relationship between individual differences in endogenous levels of oxytocin and social cognition. In the current study, we assessed the relationship between endogenous oxytocin and brain activity during an animacy perception paradigm. Thirty-seven male participants underwent scanning and provided a blood sample for oxytocin analysis. In line with previous research, perception of animacy was associated with activations in superior temporal sulcus, inferior frontal gyrus, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Notably, participants’ levels of plasma oxytocin robustly predicted activation in areas critical for social cognitive processes, such that higher oxytocin levels were related to increased activity in dorsal mPFC, ventral mPFC, dorsolateral PFC, superior temporal gyrus, and temporoparietal junction (TPJ), suggesting differential processing of social stimuli. Together these results show that stable variations in endogenous oxytocin levels explain individual differences in social perception.
Highlights
There is growing interest in understanding social cognition from the level of individual biology
Plasma Oxytocin To minimize temporal variability, 8 ml of blood was collected from participants between 10:00--11:00 am in a BDTM P100 blood collection tube (BD Diagnostics, Franklin Lakes, NJ)
Plasma OT was entered into our model as a predictor and task-related activations were computed with and without OT as predictor
Summary
There is growing interest in understanding social cognition from the level of individual biology. Interest in establishing the biological roots of these disorders have resulted in the use of endogenous, molecular predictors (e.g., genes, hormones) to explain variations in behavior and provide a mechanistic explanation for these social deficits. It is unclear, how the range of social cognitive variability in healthy populations might be explained by these same biologically-based predictors. The current study attempts to validate a biomarker that predicts individual differences in social cognition in healthy (neurotypical) participants One such candidate biomarker is oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide important for pair bonding and prosocial behaviors.
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