Ageing and Oxytocin: A Call for Extending Human Oxytocin Research to Ageing Populations – A Mini-Review

Abstract

Interest in oxytocin has increased rapidly over the last decades. Consequently, quite a number of studies have addressed the influence of oxytocin on social stress, perception, cognition, and decision making in healthy adults as well as in clinical samples characterized by some form of social disturbance. Surprisingly little research on oxytocin has focused on ageing populations. This is particularly striking in two areas of study: the role of oxytocin in grandparents’ behavior toward and bonding with their grandchildren and the effects of oxytocin on the neurocognitive processing of socioemotional stimuli. The current mini-review offers an overview of the literature on the involvement of oxytocin in parental behavior and neurocognitive functioning, and discusses the relevance of these findings to ageing individuals. As the literature shows that oxytocin is profoundly involved in parenting and in bonding throughout life, it is highly likely that oxytocin plays a role in grandparenting and bonding between grandparents and grandchildren as well. However, results obtained with younger adults may not be directly applicable to older individuals in yet another type of relationship. The possibility that age-related changes occur in the oxytocin system (which is at present unclear) must be taken into account. In addition, ageing impairs neurocognitive processes that are profoundly affected by oxytocin (including some aspects of memory and emotion recognition) and is associated with alterations in both structure and function of the amygdala, which is prominently involved in mediating effects of oxytocin. Research investigating the ageing oxytonergic system and studies focusing on the involvement of oxytocin in socioemotional neurocognitive processes and social behavior in elderly individuals, including grandparents, are therefore urgently needed.

Oxytocin’s effect on resting-state functional connectivity varies by age and sex

“…This result it is in line with the emerging notion in the literature that oxytocin function may change with age (Campbell et al, 2014; Ebner et al, 2013, 2015a,b; Huffmeijer et al, 2013) as well as differ between men and women (Bethlehem et al, 2013; Domes et al, 2010; Lischke et al, 2012; MacDonald, 2013; Rilling et al, 2014). In particular, we found a significant three-way interaction between treatment, age, and sex.…”

“…Further, evidence that oxytocin's social-cognitive and affective effects differ by level of proficiency, in that more impaired compared to less impaired individuals appear to benefit more from oxytocin administration (Bartz et al, 2010) also supports the idea that oxytocin's effects may vary across age and sex. Based on these considerations, there have been recent calls for systematic examination of age and sex influences on oxytocin' level and function in brain and behavior (Bethlehem et al, 2013; Ebner et al, 2013, 2015b; Huffmeijer et al, 2013). The present paper constitutes a first response to these calls.…”

Biobehavioral Pathways Underlying Spousal Health Dynamics: Its Nature, Correlates, and Consequences

“…For example, research with younger couples points to the important role of intimacy and oxytocin in buffering the association between stress exposure and cortisol [26]. It would therefore be interesting to extend this line of research to older couples taking into account age-related changes in biological systems [27]. It would also be interesting to extend experimental paradigms that have been developed for younger couples to examine, for example, if the release of oxytocin triggered by a partner massage can undo the link between stress exposure and cortisol.…”

Nonsocial Functions of Hypothalamic Oxytocin

“…Elderly individuals have dramatically different mental and physical features from the young and adults [42], such as eating and drinking, body-temperature regulation, sexual behaviors, and autonomic and endocrine responses. Most of these aging-related functional changes occur when hypothalamic integration, including the functions of OXT-secreting system, becomes undependable.…”