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Title: Chronic intranasal oxytocin increases acoustic eavesdropping and adult neurogenesis
Social information gathering is a complex process influenced by neuroendocrine-modulated neural plasticity. Oxytocin (OXT) is a key regulator of social decision-making processes such as information gathering, as it contextually modulates social salience and can induce long-term structural plasticity, including neurogenesis. Understanding the link between OXT-induced plasticity and communicative awareness is crucial, particularly because OXT is being considered for treatment of social pathologies. We investigated the role of chronic OXT-dependent plasticity in attention to novel social information by manipulating the duration of time following cessation of intranasal treatment to allow for the functional integration of adult-born neurons resulting from OXT treatment. Following a 3-week delay, chronic intranasal OXT (IN-OXT) increased approach behavior of both female and male mice towards aggressive vocal playbacks of two unseen novel conspecifics, while no effect was observed after a 3-day delay. Immature neurons increased in the ventral hippocampus of females and males treated with chronic IN-OXT after the 3-week delay, indicating a potential association between ventral hippocampal neurogenesis and approach/acoustic eavesdropping. The less the mouse approached, the higher the level of neurogenesis. Contrary to expectations, the correlation between ventral hippocampal neurogenesis and approach behavior was not affected by IN-OXT, suggesting that other plasticity mechanisms underlie the long-term effects of chronic OXT on social approach. Furthermore, we found a negative correlation between ventral hippocampal neurogenesis and freezing behavior. Overall, our results demonstrate that chronic IN-OXT-induced long-term plasticity can influence approach to vocal information and we further reinforced the link between neurogenesis and anxiety.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1946613
PAR ID:
10482002
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Elsevier
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Hormones and Behavior
Volume:
156
Issue:
C
ISSN:
0018-506X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
105443
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
oxytocin social behavior neurogenesis Peromyscus californicus ventral hippocampus acoustic communication anxiety freezing behavior
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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