Oxytocin promotes prosocial behavior and related neural responses in infant macaques at-risk for compromised social
Fabrizia Festante1, Holly Rayson2, Annika Paukner3
1Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, 56128, Pisa, Italy; Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, 56126, Pisa, Italy.
Insights
Oxytocin (OT) enhances early social development by improving neural and behavioral responses to facial gestures in infant macaques. This hormone may help mitigate social deficits linked to early adversity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Primatology
Background:
- Oxytocin (OT) is known to benefit social functioning, but its role in early social development and therapeutic potential in infancy remains unclear.
- Limited social exposure in early life can negatively impact social development, highlighting the need for interventions.
- Understanding the mechanisms of OT in infancy is crucial for addressing neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of exogenous oxytocin (OT) on neural and behavioral responses in nursery-reared infant macaques observing facial gestures.
- To explore the potential of OT to enhance social perception and prosocial behaviors in early development.
- To examine the influence of cortisol levels on OT's efficacy in promoting social behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Infant macaques with limited social exposure were administered exogenous oxytocin.
- Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure neural responses during observation of live facial gestures and non-biological movement.
- Behavioral responses, including facial gesture production and attention, were recorded and analyzed.
Main Results:
- Oxytocin increased alpha suppression in posterior scalp regions during facial gesture observation, indicating engagement of social perception networks.
- OT administration boosted the production of matching facial gestures and attention towards socially relevant stimuli in infants.
- Infants with higher baseline cortisol levels showed the greatest improvement in prosocial behaviors following OT administration.
Conclusions:
- Oxytocin promotes prosocial behaviors and associated neural activity, potentially counteracting negative impacts of early social adversity.
- These findings suggest OT administration as a potential therapeutic strategy for social difficulties in neurodevelopmental and early psychiatric disorders.
- The study underscores the importance of targeting interventions during critical developmental windows of high brain plasticity.
Abstract:
Although positive effects of oxytocin (OT) on social functioning are well-demonstrated, little is known about the mechanisms through which OT may drive early social development, or its therapeutic efficacy in infancy. To address these critical issues, we investigated the effects of exogenous OT on neural (EEG) and behavioral responses during observation of live facial gestures in infant macaques with limited social exposure (i.e. nursery-reared). Three key findings were revealed. First, OT increased alpha suppression over posterior scalp regions during observation of facial gestures but not non-biological movement, suggesting that OT targets self-other matching and attentional cortical networks involved in social perception from very early infancy. Second, OT increased infant production of matching facial gestures and attention towards the most socially-relevant facial stimuli, both behaviors typically silenced by early social deprivation. Third, infants with higher cortisol levels appeared to benefit the most from OT, displaying greater improvements in prosocial behaviors after OT administration. Altogether, these findings suggest that OT promotes prosocial behaviors and associated neural responses likely impacted by early social adversity, and demonstrate the potential of OT administration to ameliorate social difficulties in the context of neurodevelopmental and early-emerging psychiatric disorders, at a developmental stage when brain plasticity is greatest.
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