Marmosets treated with oxytocin are more socially attractive to their long-term mate

Abstract

Adult male-female bonds are partly characterized by initiating and maintaining close proximity with a social partner, as well as engaging in high levels of affiliative and sociosexual behavior. Oxytocin (OXT), a neuromodulatory nonapeptide, plays a critical role in the facilitation of social bonding and prosocial behavior toward a social partner (Feldman, 2012). However, less attention has been given to whether augmentation of OXT levels in an individual alters others’ perceptions and behavior toward an OXT-treated social partner. We examined social dynamics in well-established male-female pairs of marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus) in which one member of the pair was administered an intranasal OXT agonist, an OXT antagonist (OXTA), or saline. OXT treatment did not alter the expression of affiliative toward an untreated partner. However, OXT did significantly influence the expression of proximity and grooming behavior with a treated partner, as a function of OXT treatment and sex. Female interest in initiating and maintaining proximity with a pair-mate was altered by OXT treatment. Untreated female marmosets departed from their saline-treated partner more frequently than they approached them, as indicated by a low proximity index score. However, when males received an intranasal OXT agonist they had a significantly increased proximity index score relative to saline, indicating that their untreated partner approached them more often than they departed from them). Saline-treated females initiated and received equivalent levels of grooming behavior. However, when female marmosets were treated with an OXT agonist their untreated partner groomed them proportionately more often, for a greater total duration, and for more time per bout, than they initiated grooming behavior. These results suggest that intranasal OXT altered male and female marmosets’ stimulus properties in such a way as to increase the amount of grooming behavior that females received from their long-term mate, as well as increase female interest in initiating and maintaining proximity with their long-term mate. Furthermore, these results support the notion that central OXT activity plays an important neuromodulatory role in the maintenance of long-lasting male-female relationships.

Inequity aversion strategies between marmosets are influenced by partner familiarity and sex but not by oxytocin

“…It is alternatively possible the our OT treatment did not produce a big effect because OT administered intranasally may not abundantly penetrate the brain; though large doses may have strong peripheral effects. While this study cannot speak directly to which central or peripheral mechanism OT modifies behaviour, previous studies using this intranasal OT procedure in marmosets have shown socially-specific effects of intranasal OT treatment across multiple social realms (Cavanaugh et al, 2015, 2014; Mustoe et al, 2015; Smith et al, 2010; Taylor & French, 2015). However, considerably more experimental research is needed in both human and animal populations, to establish whether and how administration of OXT reliably affects how individuals maintain cooperative relationships across a diversity of social interactions and species.…”

“…For instance, treatment with Pro 8 -OXT, but not the consensus mammalian ligand (Leu 8 -OXT), reduced both sociosexual behaviour and prosocial food sharing toward opposite-sex strangers (Cavanaugh et al, 2014; Mustoe et al, 2015). Additionally, OXT enhances responsiveness to infant stimuli in male marmosets (Saito & Nakamura, 2011; Taylor & French, 2015), social attractiveness (Cavanaugh, Huffman, Harnisch, & French, 2015), and basal OXT levels are synchronized with levels of affiliative behaviour (Finkenwirth, van Schaik, Ziegler, & Burkart, 2015). These findings highlight how OXT shapes the maintenance of cooperative social relationships (male-female pair bonds; parental-offspring bonds) in marmosets by reducing interest in opposite-sex strangers and enhancing interest toward infant stimuli, two characteristics that may preserve biparental cooperative relationships.…”

Marmosets: A Neuroscientific Model of Human Social Behavior

“…Since marmosets display a similarly flexible pattern of sociosexual behavior as humans (Buss and Schmitt, 1993; Cavanaugh et al, 2015; Cavanaugh et al, 2014), continued research on the neurochemical basis of social attachment and recognition in marmosets (Cavanaugh et al, 2015; Cavanaugh et al, 2014; Mustoe et al, 2015; Smith et al, 2010), for example, provides direct comparisons to many analogous studies in rodents discussed earlier on this topic and offers the opportunity to identify shared and derived features of these core mammalian social behavioral systems in primates. Furthermore, marmoset active social signaling paradigms represent potential models for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying facets of language, in particular the intricate interplay between social communication and social cognition.…”

Neuropeptide diversity and the regulation of social behavior in New World primates

“…IN OT also modified social behavior by altering the behavior of untreated partners toward their treated partner. Female marmosets initiated and maintained proximity more often when their mate was treated with IN OT compared to when their mate was treated with a saline control, suggesting that OT makes male marmosets more ‘socially attractive’ (Cavanaugh et al, 2015). Unlike the measure of partner preference in marmosets, however, this effect was ligand-specific: females modified behavior toward male partners similarly when males were treated with either Pro 8 -OT or Leu 8 -OT.…”