Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that is well known for its role in social and affiliative behavior
in humans. Oxytocin receptors are significantly lowered in autistic individuals and
administration of oxytocin has shown benefits in enhancing social recognition and behavior in
autistic children. However, more recent research has refined the behavioral effects of
oxytocin, moving away from the notion that the neuropeptide blindly induces love and trust,
towards the view that it actually increases social perception in assessing friend vs. foe:
supporting cohesion with 'insiders' and distrust and aggression for 'outsiders.' Oxytocin is
responsible for the selective aggression shown by lactating female mammals protecting their
young, an effect demonstrated also in humans, and has been shown to strengthen feelings of
ethnocentrism. However, no neuroimaging study to date has investigated this effect, with the
consequence that its neurobiological basis is still unknown.
The general aim of our study is to determine meso-circuit brain dynamics that underlie
oxytocin's amplification of both trust and aggression; and specifically, using neuroimaging
(fMRI, magnetoencephalography, and behavioral testing) whether oxytocin amplifies kinship
bias by attenuating social reward learning.