Oxytocin enhances the triangular association among behavioral performance, resting state, and task-state functional connectivity

Abstract

The role of oxytocin (OT) in social behavior and social brain networks has been widely documented. However, the effect of OT on the association between social behavior and brain functional connectivity (FC) is yet to be comprehensively explored. In this study, using a face-perception task and multiple connectome-based predictive (CPM) models, we aimed to: 1) determine whether OT could enhance the association between task behavioral performance, resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC), and task-state functional connectivity (tsFC), and 2) if so, determine the role of OT in enhancing this triangular association. We found that both rsFC and tsFC could independently and significantly predict task performance in the OT group, but not in the placebo (PL) group. In addition, the correlation coefficient between rsFC and tsFC was substantially higher in the OT group than in the PL group. The strength of these associations could be partly explained by OT altering the brain's FCs related to social cognition and face-perception in both resting and task states, mainly in brain regions such as the limbic system, prefrontal cortex (PFC), temporal poles (TP), and temporoparietal junction (TPJ). Together, these results suggest that neuropeptides can increase the consistency of individual differences in different modalities (e.g., behavioral and brain-level data).