Oxytocin attenuates neural response to emotional faces in social drinkers: an fMRI study

Abstract

Introduction Oxytocin is a key mediator of emotional and social behavior that seems to be of relevance for the development and maintenance of addictive behaviors. We thus investigated the effect of oxytocin on neural response and behavior during a face-matching task in a sample of social drinkers. Methods Thirteen social drinkers underwent a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over functional magnetic resonance imaging face-matching task with and without prior intranasal application of 24 international units oxytocin. Effects of oxytocin and task condition (faces, shapes) on brain activation and individual task performance were assessed. Results Face-matching compared to shape-matching trials resulted in higher brain activation in the bilateral amygdala, hippocampus and parts of the occipital gyri. Oxytocin application vs. placebo reduced activation in bilateral amygdala, parts of the frontal gyri, and the parietal lobe. Region of interest analyses indicated that the oxytocin-induced attenuation of amygdala response was specific to face-stimuli and associated with lower subjective alcohol craving, and a lower percentage of heavy-drinking days (defined as ≥ 5 standard drinks/day). Conclusion For the first time, we could show that a larger oxytocin-induced attenuation of amygdala response to fearful faces is associated with lower subjective craving for alcohol and percentage of heavy drinking days in social drinkers. Modulation of amygdala activation, induced by emotional stimuli, might represent a neurobiological substrate of oxytocin's protective effects on drug seeking behavior.

Intranasal oxytocin modulates the salience network in aging

“…Furthermore, given the growing literature about sex-dimorphic effects of oxytocin on brain activity ( Domes et al, 2010 ; Ebner et al, 2016 ; Rilling et al, 2014 ) and social function ( Campbell et al, 2014 ; Grainger et al, 2018 ; Luo et al, 2017 ; Reed et al, 2019 ), future studies will benefit from larger sample sizes that allow for systematic comparison between females and males among young and older adults (see Leppanen et al, 2017 , for sample size guidelines in this field of investigation). Our sample size was based on sample sizes used in comparable studies in the field of aging neuroscience (e.g., Bach et al, 2021 ; Chaby et al, 2015 ; Leppanen et al, 2017 ; Noh and Isaacowitz, 2013 ) and intranasal oxytocin research ( Barraza et al, 2013 ; Fan et al, 2014 ; Riem et al, 2014 ) at the time when this study was conducted (between 2013 and 2014). After completion of our data collection, a meta-analysis was published supporting a sample size of 64 participants in each group for between-subjects designs for a power of 0.80 to detect significant effects of oxytocin administration on social cognition ( Leppanen et al, 2017 ).…”

Barriers and Breakthroughs in Targeting the Oxytocin System to Treat Alcohol Use Disorder

“…In studies listed in Table 1 , five studies observed decreases in craving, alcohol cue response or heavy alcohol use ( 12 , 17 , 25 , 33 , 37 ), and the other five did not observe significant effects ( 26 – 28 , 34 – 36 ). Since only one study reported that OXT produced opposite from hypothesized effects in a subpopulation of subjects ( 32 ), we conservatively interpret this analysis that OXT can be effective in decreasing alcohol craving or intake, but its potency needs to be enhanced.…”

Oxytocin Impairs the Recognition of Micro-Expressions of Surprise and Disgust

“…As for the macro-expression recognition, many studies found that participants displayed higher recognition accuracy after receiving intranasal administration of oxytocin, regardless of the emotional valence of target facial expressions (e.g., Domes et al, 2007 ; Prehn et al, 2013 ; Bate et al, 2014 ; Feeser et al, 2014 ; Timmermann et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2020 ). Some studies also suggest that intranasal oxytocin may only specifically enhance the recognition for some of the macro-expressions (e.g., specifically enhance the recognition for macro-expressions like surprise, happiness, anger, disgust, or fear; e.g., Di Simplicio et al, 2009 ; Marsh et al, 2010 ; Fang et al, 2014 ; Shin et al, 2018 ; Schwaiger et al, 2019 ), whereas a few studies seem to indicate that oxytocin may inhibits the processing of all negative macro-expressions (e.g., Ellenbogen et al, 2012 ; Domes et al, 2013 ; Ma et al, 2020 ; Bach et al, 2021 ). The results of meta-analysis provide important support for the emotion-specific account of the effects of oxytocin.…”