Oral Oxytocin Blurs Sex Differences in Amygdala Responses to Emotional Scenes

IF 5.7 2区医学 Q1 NEUROSCIENCES

Biological Psychiatry-Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Pub Date : 2024-10-01 DOI:10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.05.010

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Sex differences are shaped both by innate biological differences and the social environment and are frequently observed in human emotional neural responses. Oral administration of oxytocin (OXT), as an alternative and noninvasive intake method, has been shown to produce sex-dependent effects on emotional face processing. However, it is unclear whether oral OXT produces similar sex-dependent effects on processing continuous emotional scenes.

Methods

The current randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled neuropsychopharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment was conducted in 147 healthy participants (OXT = 74, men/women = 37/37; placebo = 73, men/women = 36/37) to examine the oral OXT effect on plasma OXT concentrations and neural response to emotional scenes in both sexes.

Results

At the neuroendocrine level, women showed lower endogenous OXT concentrations than men, but oral OXT increased OXT concentrations equally in both sexes. Regarding neural activity, emotional scenes evoked opposite valence-independent effects on right amygdala activation (women > men) and its functional connectivity with the insula (men > women) in men and women in the placebo group. This sex difference was either attenuated (amygdala response) or even completely eliminated (amygdala-insula functional connectivity) in the OXT group. Multivariate pattern analysis confirmed these findings by developing an accurate sex-predictive neural pattern that included the amygdala and the insula under the placebo but not the OXT condition.

Conclusions

The results of the current study suggest a pronounced sex difference in neural responses to emotional scenes that was eliminated by oral OXT, with OXT having opposite modulatory effects in men and women. This may reflect oral OXT enhancing emotional regulation to continuous emotional stimuli in both sexes by facilitating appropriate changes in sex-specific amygdala-insula circuitry.

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口服催产素会模糊杏仁核对情绪场景反应的性别差异。

背景：性别差异是由先天生物差异和社会环境共同形成的，并经常在人类情绪神经反应中被观察到。口服催产素作为一种替代性和非侵入性的摄入方法，已被证明能对情绪面孔处理产生性别依赖效应。然而，目前还不清楚口服催产素是否会对连续情绪场景的处理产生类似的性别依赖效应：方法：在147名健康参与者（催产素=74，男性/女性=37/37；安慰剂=73，男性/女性=36/37）中进行了当前的随机、双盲、安慰剂对照神经-精神药理学fMRI实验，以研究口服催产素对两性血浆催产素浓度和神经对情感场景反应的影响：结果：在神经内分泌水平上，女性的内源性催产素浓度低于男性，但口服催产素同样提高了两性的催产素浓度。在神经活动方面，在安慰剂组中，情绪场景对右杏仁核激活（女性>男性）及其与脑岛的功能连接（男性>女性）产生了与情绪无关的相反影响。在催产素组中，这种性别差异要么减弱（杏仁核反应），要么甚至完全消除（杏仁核-半岛功能连接）。多变量模式分析证实了这些研究结果，并得出了准确的性别预测神经模式，其中包括安慰剂条件下的杏仁核和脑岛，而不是催产素条件下的杏仁核和脑岛：本研究表明，对情感场景的神经反应存在明显的性别差异，口服催产素可消除这种差异，对两性的调节作用相反。这可能反映了口服催产素通过促进性别特异性杏仁核-半岛回路的适当变化，增强了两性对持续情绪刺激的情绪调节能力。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Biological Psychiatry-Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Neuroscience-Biological Psychiatry

CiteScore

10.40

自引率

1.70%

发文量

247

审稿时长

30 days

期刊介绍： Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging is an official journal of the Society for Biological Psychiatry, whose purpose is to promote excellence in scientific research and education in fields that investigate the nature, causes, mechanisms, and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, or behavior. In accord with this mission, this peer-reviewed, rapid-publication, international journal focuses on studies using the tools and constructs of cognitive neuroscience, including the full range of non-invasive neuroimaging and human extra- and intracranial physiological recording methodologies. It publishes both basic and clinical studies, including those that incorporate genetic data, pharmacological challenges, and computational modeling approaches. The journal publishes novel results of original research which represent an important new lead or significant impact on the field. Reviews and commentaries that focus on topics of current research and interest are also encouraged.