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Salivary oxytocin increases concurrently with testosterone and time away from home among returning Tsimane' hunters.

ABSTRACT: Oxytocin, testosterone and cortisol can have opposing effects on social behaviour, yet few studies have examined their interactions. We measured changes in salivary oxytocin, testosterone and cortisol among Tsimane' men returning home after hunting, an ancient context of male status competition, parental investment and cooperation. Contra normal diurnal rhythm, oxytocin increased relative to baseline and this increase was positively associated with duration of the hunt and change in testosterone, but not cortisol, social context, hunting outcome or physical activity. The concurrent increase in endogenous peripheral oxytocin and testosterone is unexpected given their opposing independent effects on social cognition and behaviour, and has not been observed before. We discuss the potential significance of these effects for the biology of pair-bonding, parenting and social foraging in humans and other species.

SUBMITTER: Jaeggi AV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4387502 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Salivary oxytocin increases concurrently with testosterone and time away from home among returning Tsimane' hunters.

Jaeggi Adrian V AV Trumble Benjamin C BC Kaplan Hillard S HS Gurven Michael M

Biology letters 20150301 3

Oxytocin, testosterone and cortisol can have opposing effects on social behaviour, yet few studies have examined their interactions. We measured changes in salivary oxytocin, testosterone and cortisol among Tsimane' men returning home after hunting, an ancient context of male status competition, parental investment and cooperation. Contra normal diurnal rhythm, oxytocin increased relative to baseline and this increase was positively associated with duration of the hunt and change in testosterone ...[more]

PMID: 25788487

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Project description:BackgroundPremastication, the transfer of pre-chewed food, is a common infant and young child feeding practice among the Tsimane, forager-horticulturalists living in the Bolivian Amazon. Research conducted primarily with Western populations has shown that infants harbor distinct oral microbiota from their mothers. Premastication, which is less common in these populations, may influence the colonization and maturation of infant oral microbiota, including via transmission of oral pathogens. We collected premasticated food and saliva samples from Tsimane mothers and infants (9-24 months of age) to test for evidence of bacterial transmission in premasticated foods and overlap in maternal and infant salivary microbiota. We extracted bacterial DNA from two premasticated food samples and 12 matched salivary samples from maternal-infant pairs. DNA sequencing was performed with MiSeq (Illumina). We evaluated maternal and infant microbial composition in terms of relative abundance of specific taxa, alpha and beta diversity, and dissimilarity distances.ResultsThe bacteria in saliva and premasticated food were mapped to 19 phyla and 400 genera and were dominated by Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes. The oral microbial communities of Tsimane mothers and infants who frequently share premasticated food were well-separated in a non-metric multi-dimensional scaling ordination (NMDS) plot. Infant microbiotas clustered together, with weighted Unifrac distances significantly differing between mothers and infants. Infant saliva contained more Firmicutes (p < 0.01) and fewer Proteobacteria (p < 0.05) than did maternal saliva. Many genera previously associated with dental and periodontal infections, e.g. Neisseria, Gemella, Rothia, Actinomyces, Fusobacterium, and Leptotrichia, were more abundant in mothers than in infants.ConclusionsSalivary microbiota of Tsimane infants and young children up to two years of age do not appear closely related to those of their mothers, despite frequent premastication and preliminary evidence that maternal bacteria is transmitted to premasticated foods. Infant physiology and diet may constrain colonization by maternal bacteria, including several oral pathogens.

Project description:Many war veterans struggle with depression and suicidality, and separation from the military is a time of particularly high risk. Based on research in non-human animals, we hypothesized that reduced oxytocin signaling would mediate symptoms of depression and suicidality in war veterans recently separated from their close comrades. We also hypothesized that veterans with more frequent contact with comrades would have fewer symptoms of depression and suicidality. In this cross-sectional study, male veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (n = 86) provided blood and urine samples for measurement of peripheral oxytocin (OT) levels, as well as saliva samples for DNA extraction followed by genotyping of oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, and CpG-methylation assessment. Participants also completed a series of mental health questionnaires and interviews. Veterans reported feeling very close to their comrades during war, and missing them greatly upon returning home. Neither peripheral OT levels nor OXTR genotypes were related to symptoms of depression or suicidality. On the other hand, methylation at OXTR CpG -924 was negatively correlated with depressive symptomology, after controlling for possible confounds. Veterans who socialized with comrades more frequently had higher levels of urinary, but not plasma OT, as well as less depressive symptomology. Social connectedness was a strong negative predictor of symptoms of both depression and suicidality, eclipsing the predictive power of other variables such as post-deployment social support, the degree to which participants reported missing their comrades, and the frequency with which they socialized with comrades. Our results suggest that veteran mental health is more impacted by lack of social connectedness than by separation from close comrades per se. While there is some evidence that OXTR methylation relates to depressive symptomology, decreased OT signaling does not appear to mediate the relationship between social disconnectedness and depression or suicidality. Sleep quality and anxiety disorders were also significantly associated with mental health symptoms, independent of social connectedness. Our findings suggest that efforts aimed at alleviating the burden of depression and suicidality in returning war veterans should focus on re-integrating veterans into society and establishing a feeling of social connectedness, as well as on treating anxiety disorders and sleep problems.

Dataset Information

Salivary oxytocin increases concurrently with testosterone and time away from home among returning Tsimane' hunters.

Publications

Salivary oxytocin increases concurrently with testosterone and time away from home among returning Tsimane' hunters.

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