Oxytocin enhances brain reward system responses in men viewing the face of their female partner
| Autor: | Birgit Stoffel-Wagner, Andrea Wille, Dirk Scheele, Wolfgang Maier, René Hurlemann, Keith M. Kendrick, Onur Güntürkün, Benjamin Becker |
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| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Attractiveness physiology [Recognition Psychology] Neuropeptide Nucleus accumbens Oxytocin Nucleus Accumbens Developmental psychology Reward system Reward drug effects [Ventral Tegmental Area] Dopamine psychology [Sexual Partners] medicine Humans Interpersonal Relations Administration Intranasal Multidisciplinary Ventral Tegmental Area Recognition Psychology Biological Sciences Love Magnetic Resonance Imaging Ventral tegmental area Sexual Partners medicine.anatomical_structure pharmacology [Oxytocin] Face drug effects [Nucleus Accumbens] Female Brain stimulation reward ddc:500 Psychology administration & dosage [Oxytocin] hormones hormone substitutes and hormone antagonists medicine.drug |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(50), 20308-20313 (2013). doi:10.1073/pnas.1314190110 |
| ISSN: | 1091-6490 0027-8424 |
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1314190110 |
| Popis: | The biological mechanisms underlying long-term partner bonds in humans are unclear. The evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) is associated with the formation of partner bonds in some species via interactions with brain dopamine reward systems. However, whether it plays a similar role in humans has as yet not been established. Here, we report the results of a discovery and a replication study, each involving a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject, pharmaco-functional MRI experiment with 20 heterosexual pair-bonded male volunteers. In both experiments, intranasal OXT treatment (24 IU) made subjects perceive their female partner's face as more attractive compared with unfamiliar women but had no effect on the attractiveness of other familiar women. This enhanced positive partner bias was paralleled by an increased response to partner stimuli compared with unfamiliar women in brain reward regions including the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). In the left NAcc, OXT even augmented the neural response to the partner compared with a familiar woman, indicating that this finding is partner-bond specific rather than due to familiarity. Taken together, our results suggest that OXT could contribute to romantic bonds in men by enhancing their partner's attractiveness and reward value compared with other women. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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