Hormonal contraceptives suppress oxytocin-induced brain reward responses to the partner’s face

Autor: Birgit Stoffel-Wagner, Dirk Scheele, Jessica Plota, Wolfgang Maier, René Hurlemann
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
adverse effects [Contraceptives
Oral
Hormonal]
Adult
Attractiveness
medicine.medical_specialty
Sexual Behavior
Cognitive Neuroscience
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Nucleus accumbens
Oxytocin
Nucleus Accumbens
Contraceptives
Oral
Hormonal
Developmental psychology
Young Adult
03 medical and health sciences
Reward system
0302 clinical medicine
drug effects [Sexual Behavior]
Reward
Internal medicine
medicine
Humans
ddc:610
pharmacology [Contraceptives
Oral
Hormonal]
medicine.diagnostic_test
Brain
physiology [Facial Recognition]
Original Articles
General Medicine
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
030227 psychiatry
Sexual Partners
Endocrinology
pharmacology [Oxytocin]
Hormonal contraception
drug effects [Nucleus Accumbens]
drug effects [Brain]
Female
Brain stimulation reward
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Psychology
administration & dosage [Oxytocin]
Facial Recognition
hormones
hormone substitutes
and hormone antagonists
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Hormone
medicine.drug
Zdroj: Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 11(5), 767-774 (2015). doi:10.1093/scan/nsv157
ISSN: 1749-5024
1749-5016
DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsv157
Popis: The hypothalamic peptide oxytocin (OXT) has been identified as a key modulator of pair-bonding in men, but its effects in women are still elusive. Moreover, there is substantial evidence that hormonal contraception (HC) influences partner preferences and sexual satisfaction, which constitute core domains of OXT function. We thus hypothesized that OXT effects on partner-related behavioral and neural responses could be significantly altered in women using HC. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study involving 40 pair-bonded women, 21 of whom were using HC, we investigated whether a 24-IU nasal dose of OXT would modulate brain reward responses evoked by the romantic partner's face relative to the faces of familiar and unfamiliar people. Treatment with OXT increased the perceived attractiveness of the partner relative to other men, which was paralleled by elevated responses in reward-associated regions, including the nucleus accumbens. These effects of OXT were absent in women using HC. Our results confirm and extend previous findings in men that OXT interacts with the brain reward system to reinforce partner value representations, indicating a common OXT-dependent mechanism underlying partner attraction in both sexes. This mechanism may be disturbed in women using HC, suggesting that gonadal steroids could alter partner-specific OXT effects.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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