Dataset Information

Oxytocin Facilitates Self-Serving Rather Than Altruistic Tendencies in Competitive Social Interactions Via Orbitofrontal Cortex.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:While the neuropeptide oxytocin can facilitate empathy and altruistic behavior, it may also promote self-serving tendencies in some contexts, and it remains unclear if it would increase altruistic or self-interest behaviors when they compete within a social situation. METHODS:The current between-subject, double-blind, placebo-controlled fMRI study investigated the effect of intranasal oxytocin on empathy for social exclusion using a modified online ball-tossing game that incorporated monetary rewards and the potential to display both altruistic and self-interest behaviors. RESULTS:Results showed that when subjects in both oxytocin and placebo groups were observing a player being excluded (victim) by other players in the game, there was activation in the mentalizing network. When subjects then played both with the victim and the players who had excluded them, they threw more balls to the victim player, indicative of an altruistic response. However, subjects in the oxytocin group threw more balls to the excluder players indicative of greater self-interest, since the latter would be perceived as more likely to reciprocate to maximize financial gain. This behavioral effect of oxytocin was associated with greater medial orbitofrontal cortex activation when playing with the excluders and negatively correlated with trait-altruism scores. CONCLUSIONS:Overall, our findings suggest that in the context of competing motivations for exhibiting altruistic or self-interest behavior, oxytocin enhanced self-interest and this was associated with greater activation in frontal reward areas.

SUBMITTER: Xu X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6672625 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Oxytocin Facilitates Self-Serving Rather Than Altruistic Tendencies in Competitive Social Interactions Via Orbitofrontal Cortex.

Xu Xiaolei X Liu Congcong C Zhou Xinqi X Chen Yuanshu Y Gao Zhao Z Zhou Feng F Kou Juan J Becker Benjamin B Kendrick Keith M KM

The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology 20190801 8

<h4>Background</h4>While the neuropeptide oxytocin can facilitate empathy and altruistic behavior, it may also promote self-serving tendencies in some contexts, and it remains unclear if it would increase altruistic or self-interest behaviors when they compete within a social situation.<h4>Methods</h4>The current between-subject, double-blind, placebo-controlled fMRI study investigated the effect of intranasal oxytocin on empathy for social exclusion using a modified online ball-tossing game tha ...[more]

PMID: 31152588

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Project description:Categorically distinct basic drives (for example, for social versus feeding behaviour1-3) can exert potent influences on each other; such interactions are likely to have important adaptive consequences (such as appropriate regulation of feeding in the context of social hierarchies) and can become maladaptive (such as in clinical settings involving anorexia). It is known that neural systems regulating natural and adaptive caloric intake, and those regulating social behaviours, involve related circuitry4-7, but the causal circuit mechanisms of these drive adjudications are not clear. Here we investigate the causal role in behaviour of cellular-resolution experience-specific neuronal populations in the orbitofrontal cortex, a major reward-processing hub that contains diverse activity-specific neuronal populations that respond differentially to various aspects of caloric intake8-13 and social stimuli14,15. We coupled genetically encoded activity imaging with the development and application of methods for optogenetic control of multiple individually defined cells, to both optically monitor and manipulate the activity of many orbitofrontal cortex neurons at the single-cell level in real time during rewarding experiences (caloric consumption and social interaction). We identified distinct populations within the orbitofrontal cortex that selectively responded to either caloric rewards or social stimuli, and found that activity of individually specified naturally feeding-responsive neurons was causally linked to increased feeding behaviour; this effect was selective as, by contrast, single-cell resolution activation of naturally social-responsive neurons inhibited feeding, and activation of neurons responsive to neither feeding nor social stimuli did not alter feeding behaviour. These results reveal the presence of potent cellular-level subnetworks within the orbitofrontal cortex that can be precisely engaged to bidirectionally control feeding behaviours subject to, for example, social influences.

Dataset Information

Oxytocin Facilitates Self-Serving Rather Than Altruistic Tendencies in Competitive Social Interactions Via Orbitofrontal Cortex.

Publications

Oxytocin Facilitates Self-Serving Rather Than Altruistic Tendencies in Competitive Social Interactions Via Orbitofrontal Cortex.

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