Peripheral administration of oxytocin increases social affiliation in the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber)

Oxytocin and Social Preference in Female House Mice (Mus musculus domesticus)

“…Mooney et al. () found increased huddling behaviour and time in close proximity to conspecifics in the naked mole rat. Meerkats injected subcutaneously with OT demonstrated increased cooperative behaviours such as digging and pup feeding as well as decreased initiation of aggression (Madden & Clutton‐Brock ), and peripheral OT administration inhibited infanticide in female house mice (McCarthy ).…”

Region-specific associations between sex, social status, and oxytocin receptor density in the brains of eusocial rodents

“…For example, OTR binding and OT-neurophysin-ir processes in the nucleus accumbens are present at an intense level in the eusocial naked mole-rats, but nearly absent in the solitary Cape mole-rat, indicating that oxytocinergic activity in the nucleus accumbens may play an important role in eusocial behaviors. Little is known about the behavioral effects of oxytocin in naked mole-rats, though we have previously shown that subordinates have more oxytocinergic neurons in the paraventricular nucleus than do breeders (Mooney and Holmes, 2013) and peripheral administration of oxytocin increases some social behaviors in subordinates (Mooney et al, 2014). Specifically, intraperitoneal injections of oxytocin increase the amount of in-colony huddling, as well as the proximity to and investigation of familiar conspecifics when tested outside of the colony.…”

“…These effects may be, in part, mediated by oxytocin's anxiolytic properties (reviewed in Neumann, 2002). Even peripheral administration of the peptide can have diverse prosocial effects in cooperatively breeding mammals (Madden and Clutton-Brock, 2011;Mooney et al, 2014). Determining where and how oxytocin acts in particular species may shed light on how this diversity of behavioral outcomes arises.…”

Presence and Absence of Sex Differences in Structure and Function of the Brain Oxytocin System: Implications for Understanding the Regulation of Social Behavior

“…However, further research showed that OT does play a role in partner preference formation in male prairie voles (Cho et al, 1999;Liu et al, 2001). We have limited the rodent literature to voles, rats, and mice since almost no research exists regarding the role of OT in the regulation of the same social behavior in both sexes in other rodent species such as hamsters (Harmon et al, 2002) and naked mole-rats (Mooney et al, 2014). Given these new found roles of OT in both male and female social behavior, a robust literature of sex-specific actions of the OT system in rodents and humans emerged, and is summarized in the following sections and in Tables 11.3-11.8.…”