Oxytocin modulates social brain network correlations in resting and task state

Abstract

Oxytocin (OT) is a neuropeptide that modulates social behaviors and the social brain. The effects of OT on the social brain can be tracked by assessing the neural activity in the resting and task states, providing a system-level framework for characterizing state-based functional relationships of its distinct effect. Here, we contribute to this framework by examining how OT modulates social brain network correlations during the resting and task states using fMRI. Firstly, we investigated network activation, followed by analyzing the relationship between networks and individual differences measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the Big-Five scales. Subsequently, we evaluated functional connectivity in both states. Finally, the relationship between networks across the states was represented by the predictive power of networks in the resting state for task-evoked activity. The difference in predicted accuracy between subjects displayed individual variations in this relationship. Our results showed decreased dorsal default mode network (DDMN) for OT group in the resting state. Additionally, only in the OT group, the activity of the DDMN in the resting state had the largest predictive power for task-evoked activation of the precuneus network (PN). The results also demonstrated OT reduced individual variation of PN, specifically, the difference of accuracy between predicting a subject's own and others' PN task activation. These findings suggest a distributed but modulatory effect of OT on the association between resting brain networks and task-dependent brain networks, showing increased DDMN to PN connectivity after OT administration, which may support OT-induced distributed processing during task performance.

Intranasal oxytocin modulates the salience network in aging

“…The literature has identified the default mode network as another large-scale network relevant regarding oxytocin’s action in the brain ( Brodmann et al, 2017 ; Wu et al, 2018 ; 2022 ). We therefore explored the treatment effect and its age modulation on resting-state functional connectivity within the default mode network by conducting parallel analyses to those described for the salience network.…”

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

“…The participants (all males) were randomly assigned to the OT group (n = 30) or PL group (n = 29). More details regarding the treatment can be found in our previous studies [37, 33, 51].…”

“…Since the similarity between individuals’ rsFC and tsFC could be enhanced by OT has been strictly proven [37], we used a simple method to replicate the effect of OT on the association between rsFC and tsFC. We performed the same correlation analysis for both groups (OT/PL).…”

“…In addition, OT effects also exhibit individual differences [2, 35], which exist not only at the behavioral level, but also at the brain level [3, 36]. OT could increase correlation between the brain networks in the resting and task states at individual level [37]. However, the specific modulatory effects of OT on the link between individual differences in different modalities (e.g., behavioral and brain levels) remain largely unknown.…”

“…2.6 CPM predictor). For Question 3, we used a correlation analysis to repeat our previous study [37] at the whole-brain level. For Question 4, we used the CPM to separate the FCs in the OT group from those in the placebo (PL) group and found which FC features contributed more to group differentiation.…”