Facilitation of social attraction and bonding by the evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide oxytocin is well-established in female mammals. However, accumulating behavioral evidence suggests that oxytocin may have evolved sex-specific functional roles in the domain of human social cognition. A critical question is how oxytocin differentially modulates neural processing of social information in men and women, leading to divergent behavioral responses. Here we show that intranasal oxytocin treatment produces sex-and valence-dependent increases in amygdala activation when women view individuals identified as praising others but in men those who criticize them. Women subsequently show increased liking for the faces of these individuals, whereas in men it is reduced. Thus, oxytocin may act differentially via the amygdala to enhance the salience of positive social attributes in women but negative ones in men. We hypothesize that oxytocin may have evolved different but complementary roles to help ensure successful reproduction by encouraging mothers to promote a prosocial rearing environment for offspring and fathers to protect against antisocial influences.T he hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) plays a key role in promoting maternal behavior and mother-infant bonding in mammals (1) as well as pair bonds with males in monogamous species (2). Recent studies in both monkeys and humans have suggested that it has not only evolved a more extensive role in social cognition in female primates but also become progressively used by males in this domain (3). Although OXT appears to facilitate both salience and motivational aspects of social cues in both sexes (3, 4), there is increasing evidence that it may often produce opposite effects in these domains in men and women (5-7), raising the intriguing possibility that it has evolved some sex-specific functions at both neural and behavioral levels. In particular, behavioral studies have reported that whereas OXT tends to facilitate positive social judgments (7), social approach (8), kinship recognition (5), and altruism (9) in women, in men it can facilitate negative social judgments (7), social avoidance (10), competitor recognition (5), and selfishness (9). Similarly, in response to couple conflict, OXT decreased sympathetic activity and arousal in women but increased them in men (6). The neural basis of these opposing sex-dependent behavioral effects of OXT has not, however, been established.Previous research has shown that the amygdala has different responses to positive and negative valence social information in men and women (11) and also may be a critical target for sex-specific functional effects of OXT. The amygdala has a sexually dimorphic distribution and expression of OXT receptors in nonprimate mammals (12, 13), and separate OXT-application studies in humans have indicated that there may be differential amygdala reactivity to fearful faces and fearful/threatening scenes in men (14, 15) and women (16,17). Importantly, this region plays a key role in processing so...
Background Mental fatigue is usually caused by long-term cognitive activities, mainly manifested as drowsiness, difficulty in concentrating, decreased alertness, disordered thinking, slow reaction, lethargy, reduced work efficiency, error-prone and so on. Mental fatigue has become a widespread sub-health condition, and has a serious impact on the cognitive function of the brain. However, seldom studies investigate the differences of mental fatigue on electrophysiological activity both in resting state and task state at the same time. Here, twenty healthy male participants were recruited to do a consecutive mental arithmetic tasks for mental fatigue induction, and electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected before and after each tasks. The power and relative power of five EEG rhythms both in resting state and task state were analyzed statistically. Results The results of brain topographies and statistical analysis indicated that mental arithmetic task can successfully induce mental fatigue in the enrolled subjects. The relative power index was more sensitive than the power index in response to mental fatigue, and the relative power for assessing mental fatigue was better in resting state than in task state. Furthermore, we found that it is of great physiological significance to divide alpha frequency band into alpha1 band and alpha2 band in fatigue related studies, and at the same time improve the statistical differences of sub-bands. Conclusions Our current results suggested that the brain activity in mental fatigue state has great differences in resting state and task state, and it is imperative to select the appropriate state in EEG data acquisition and divide alpha band into alpha1 and alpha2 bands in mental fatigue related researches.
Right hemispheric dominance in tonal bilingualism is still controversial. In this study, we investigated hemispheric dominance in 30 simultaneous Bai-Mandarin tonal bilinguals and 28 Mandarin monolinguals using multimodal neuroimaging. Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) analysis was first performed to reveal the changes of functional connections within the language-related network. Voxel-based morphology (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analyses were then used to identify bilinguals' alterations in gray matter volume (GMV) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of white matter, respectively. RSFC analyses revealed significantly increased functional connections of the right pars-orbital part of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) with right caudate, right pars-opercular part of IFG, and left inferior temporal gyrus in Bai-Mandarin bilinguals compared to monolinguals. VBM and TBSS analyses further identified significantly greater GMV in right pars-triangular IFG and increased FA in right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) in bilinguals than in monolinguals. Taken together, these results demonstrate the integrative role of the right IFG in tonal language processing of bilinguals. Our findings suggest that the intrinsic language network in simultaneous tonal bilinguals differs from that of monolinguals in terms of both function and structure.
Language plays an important role in romantic attachment. However, it is unclear whether the structure and topic of language use might influence potential mate choice. We investigated 124 female students’ preference for compliments paid by males incorporating either literal or metaphoric (conventional/novel) language and targeting their appearance or possessions (house) throughout their menstrual cycle. Male faces paired with novel metaphorical compliments were rated as more attractive by women than those paired with literal ones. Compliments targeting appearance increased male attractiveness more than possessions. Interestingly, compliments on appearance using novel metaphors were preferred by women in a relationship during the fertile phase but by single women during the luteal phase. A similar pattern of altered face attraction ratings was subsequently shown by subjects in the absence of the verbal compliments and even though they were unable to recognize the faces. Thus the maintained attraction bias for faces previously associated with figurative language compliments appears to be unconscious. Overall this study provides the first evidence that women find men who typically use novel metaphorical language to compliment appearance more attractive than those using prosaic language or complimenting possessions. The evolutionary significance for such a language use bias in mate selection is discussed.
<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Anxiety disorders are prevalent mental conditions characterized by exaggerated anxious arousal and threat reactivity. Animal and human studies suggest an anxiolytic potential of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), yet, while a clinical application will require chronic administration protocols, previous human studies have exclusively focused on single-dose (acute) intranasal OT effects. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> To facilitate the translation of the potential anxiolytic mechanism of OT into clinical application, we determined whether the anxiolytic effects of OT are maintained with repeated (chronic) administration or are influenced by dose frequency and trait anxiety. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> In a pre-registered double-blind randomized placebo-controlled pharmaco-fMRI trial the acute (single dose) as well as chronic effects of two different dose frequencies of OT (OT administered daily for 5 days or every other day) on emotional reactivity were assessed in <i>n</i> = 147 individuals with high versus low trait anxiety (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03085654). <b><i>Results:</i></b> OT produced valence, dose frequency, and trait anxiety-specific effects, such that the low-frequency (intermittent) chronic dosage specifically attenuated a neural reactivity increase in amygdala-insula-prefrontal circuits observed in the high anxious placebo-treated subjects in response to threatening but not positive stimuli. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> The present trial provides the first evidence that low-dose frequency chronic intranasal OT has the potential to alleviate exaggerated neural threat reactivity in subjects with elevated anxiety levels, suggesting a treatment potential for anxiety disorders.
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