Oxytocin enhances the triangular association among behavior, resting-state, and task-state functional connectivity.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psychopharmacology

Background:

• Oxytocin (OT) is known to influence behavior and brain networks.
• The specific impact of OT on the relationship between individual differences in functional connectivity (FC) and behavior remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if OT enhances the association between behavioral performance, resting-state FC (rsFC), and task-state FC (tsFC).
• To explore the mechanisms by which OT might strengthen this triangular association.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a face-perception task and multiple connectome-based predictive models.
• Compared brain activity and behavioral data between an OT group and a placebo (PL) group.

Main Results:

• The OT group showed higher prediction accuracy of task behavior from rsFC and tsFC compared to the PL group.
• A significantly stronger correlation between rsFC and tsFC was observed in the OT group.
• OT's effects were linked to alterations in FC within brain regions crucial for social cognition and face perception.

Conclusions:

• Oxytocin strengthens the association between inter-individual differences in brain connectivity and behavior.
• Provides a potential mechanism for how neuropeptides modulate cross-level associations, relevant for clinical and nonclinical applications.