Study summary · research use only
The oxytocin system and early-life experience-dependent plastic changes
Plain-language summary
Paraphrased from the published abstract below — not a verdict on whether anything works.
This review discusses the effects of early-life affiliative tactile stimuli and neonatal oxytocin treatment on the oxytocin-oxytocin receptor system and on social and emotional behavior in adulthood, synthesizing findings that affiliative tactile stimuli and early-life adverse stimuli both acutely activate the oxytocin-oxytocin receptor system but appear to affect social and anxiety-related behavior in opposite directions later in life. It also discusses reports that affiliative tactile stimuli and exogenous oxytocin in early life were associated with higher oxytocin-receptor system activity in adulthood, with effects dependent on procedures, sex, dosage, and brain region, while early-life stressful stimuli were associated with reduced activity of this system. Species used in the underlying studies are not specified in the abstract.
Abstract
Early-life experience influences social and emotional behaviour in adulthood. Affiliative tactile stimuli in early life facilitate the development of social and emotional behaviour, whereas early-life adverse stimuli have been shown to increase the risk of various diseases in later life. On the other hand, oxytocin has been shown to have organizational actions during early-life stages. However, the detailed mechanisms of the effects of early-life experience and oxytocin remain unclear. Here, we review the effects of affiliative tactile stimuli during the neonatal period and neonatal oxytocin treatment on the activity of the oxytocin-oxytocin receptor system and social or emotional behaviour in adulthood. Both affiliative tactile stimuli and early-life adverse stimuli in the neonatal period acutely activate the oxytocin-oxytocin receptor system in the brain but modulate social behaviour and anxiety-related behaviour apparently in an opposite direction in adulthood. Accumulating evidence suggests that affiliative tactile stimuli and exogenous application of oxytocin in early-life stages induce higher activity of the oxytocin-oxytocin receptor system in adulthood, although the effects are dependent on experimental procedures, sex, dosages and brain regions examined. On the other hand, early-life stressful stimuli appear to induce reduced activity of the oxytocin-oxytocin receptor system, possibly leading to adverse actions in adulthood. It is possible that activation of a specific oxytocin system can induce beneficial actions against early-life maltreatments and thus could be used for the treatment of developmental psychiatric disorders.
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