TY  - JOUR
AU  - Eckstein, Monika
AU  - Scheele, Dirk
AU  - Patin, Alexandra
AU  - Preckel, Katrin
AU  - Becker, Benjamin
AU  - Walter, Annika
AU  - Domschke, Katharina
AU  - Grinevich, Valery
AU  - Maier, Wolfgang
AU  - Hurlemann, René
TI  - Oxytocin Facilitates Pavlovian Fear Learning in Males.
JO  - Neuropsychopharmacology
VL  - 41
IS  - 4
SN  - 0893-133X
CY  - Basingstoke
PB  - Nature Publishing Group71819
M1  - DZNE-2020-04691
SP  - 932-939
PY  - 2016
AB  - In human evolution, social group living and Pavlovian fear conditioning have evolved as adaptive mechanisms promoting survival and reproductive success. The evolutionarily conserved hypothalamic peptide oxytocin is a key modulator of human sociality, but its effects on fear conditioning are still elusive. In the present randomized controlled study involving 97 healthy male subjects, we therefore employed functional magnetic resonance imaging and simultaneous skin conductance response (SCR) measures to characterize the modulatory influence of intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) on Pavlovian fear conditioning. We found that the peptide strengthened conditioning on both the behavioral and neural levels. Specifically, subjects exhibited faster task-related responses and enhanced SCRs to fear-associated stimuli in the late phase of conditioning, which was paralleled by heightened activity in cingulate cortex subregions in the absence of changes in amygdala function. This speaks against amygdalocentric views of oxytocin having pure anxiolytic-like effects. Instead, it suggests that the peptide enables extremely rapid and flexible adaptation to fear signals in social contexts, which may confer clear evolutionary advantages but could also elevate vulnerability for the pathological sequelae of interpersonal trauma.
KW  - Administration, Intranasal
KW  - Adult
KW  - Brain Mapping
KW  - Conditioning, Classical: drug effects
KW  - Conditioning, Classical: physiology
KW  - Double-Blind Method
KW  - Fear: drug effects
KW  - Fear: physiology
KW  - Galvanic Skin Response
KW  - Gyrus Cinguli: drug effects
KW  - Gyrus Cinguli: physiology
KW  - Humans
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
KW  - Male
KW  - Oxytocin: administration & dosage
KW  - Oxytocin: physiology
KW  - Young Adult
KW  - Oxytocin (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:26272050
C2  - pmc:PMC4748433
DO  - DOI:10.1038/npp.2015.245
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/138369
ER  -