Study summary · research use only
Oxytocin enables maternal behaviour by balancing cortical inhibition
Plain-language summary
Paraphrased from the published abstract below — not a verdict on whether anything works.
In this study, the authors show how oxytocin enables pup-retrieval behaviour in female mice by enhancing auditory cortical responses to pup calls. The abstract reports that retrieval behaviour required the left but not right auditory cortex, was accelerated by oxytocin in the left auditory cortex, and that oxytocin receptors were preferentially expressed there. It states neural responses to pup calls were lateralized, with co-tuned, temporally precise excitatory and inhibitory responses in the left cortex of maternal but not pup-naive adults, and that pairing calls with oxytocin enhanced responses by balancing the magnitude and timing of inhibition with excitation. The authors describe synaptic mechanisms by which oxytocin increases the salience of social stimuli.
Abstract
Oxytocin is important for social interactions and maternal behaviour. However, little is known about when, where and how oxytocin modulates neural circuits to improve social cognition. Here we show how oxytocin enables pup retrieval behaviour in female mice by enhancing auditory cortical pup call responses. Retrieval behaviour required the left but not right auditory cortex, was accelerated by oxytocin in the left auditory cortex, and oxytocin receptors were preferentially expressed in the left auditory cortex. Neural responses to pup calls were lateralized, with co-tuned and temporally precise excitatory and inhibitory responses in the left cortex of maternal but not pup-naive adults. Finally, pairing calls with oxytocin enhanced responses by balancing the magnitude and timing of inhibition with excitation. Our results describe fundamental synaptic mechanisms by which oxytocin increases the salience of acoustic social stimuli. Furthermore, oxytocin-induced plasticity provides a biological basis for lateralization of auditory cortical processing.
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