Oxytocin facilitates social behavior of female rats via selective modulation of interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex
Abstract
Abstract The hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin is best known for its prosocial behavioral effects. However, the precise anatomical and cellular targets for oxytocin in the cortex during social behavior remain elusive. Here we show that oxytocin neurons project directly to the medial prefrontal cortex where evoked axonal oxytocin release facilitates social behaviors in adult female rats. In conjunction, we report that local oxytocin receptor-expressing (OTR + ) cells are predominantly interneurons, whose activation promotes social interaction. Notably, this prosocial effect persists even under physiological challenge (hunger), pointing to a dedicated prosocial circuit capable of overriding primary survival drives. We further demonstrate that activation of these OTR + interneurons inhibits principal cells specifically projecting to the basolateral amygdala, thus providing a putative mechanism of selective oxytocin action in this sociability-promoting cortical network.
Article Details
Authors (36)
Stephanie Schimmer
Alan Kania
Arthur Lefevre
Konstantinos Afordakos
Kai-Yi Wang
Julia Lebedeva
Andrei Rozov
Androniki Raftogianni
Rishika Tiwari
Shai Netser
Ana Zovko
Huma Shaheen
Jonas Schimmer
Ryan Patwell
Clémence Denis
Valentin Grelot
Hugues Petitjean
Lan Geng
State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, School of Life Sciences, Peking University
Dimitri Hefter
Arjen Boender
Yuval Podpecan
Franziska Schommer
Tim Schubert
Anna Sanetra
Aleksandra Trenk
Anna Gugula
René Hurlemann
Shlomo Wagner
Yulong Li
Ferdinand Althammer
Anna Blasiak
Sarah Melzer
Hannah Monyer
Alexandre Charlet
Marina Eliava
Valery Grinevich