Oxytocin Modulates Neural Circuitry for Social Cognition and Fear in Humans

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Figure 1.
Oxytocin effects on amygdala activation. A, Rendering on normal coronal MRI at the level of the anterior commissure (in neurological orientation: the brain left is on the viewer's left). The response to face stimuli is on the left, and the response to scene stimuli is on the right. Top, Placebo; bottom, oxytocin. See Table 2 for statistical information. B, Significantly higher activation under placebo than oxytocin (main effect of drug condition). See Table 2 for statistical information. C, Plot of BOLD in the amygdala ROI (ANOVA; significant main effect of drug condition: F_(1,56) = 4.2, p = 0.045; main effect of task and drug-by-task interaction were not significant).
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Figure 2.
Significant decrease in coupling of the amygdala to the midbrain under oxytocin. A, Maps of significant difference in connectivity from the amygdala to the midbrain, in neurological orientation. See Table 2 for statistical information. B, Plot of oxytocin effect on correlation with the amygdala (Pearson's r) at the midbrain location showing maximum linkage to the amygdala during the placebo condition (coordinates: -6, -24, -15), highly significant decrease under oxytocin (p < 0.004; t test).

Table 1.

Behavioral data

	Placebo before scan	Placebo after/during scan	Oxytocin before scan	Oxytocin after/during scan	t test (after/during scanning)
Faces task
Accuracy (%)		98.8% (13.3)		99.1% (1.7)	p = 0.77
Reaction time (ms)		1094 (205)		1105 (194)	p = 0.91
Scene task
Accuracy (%)		99.7% (1.0)		100% (0.0)	p = 1.00
Reaction time (ms)		898 (171)		899 (140)	p = 0.99
STAXI^a
State	10.1 (0.4)	10.2 (0.8)	10.6 (1.8)	10.3 (0.8)	p = 0.33
Trait		17.7 (3.8)		18.3 (3.6)	p = 0.23
MDBF^b
Arousal	31.3 (6.3)	34.1 (6.0)	33.9 (4.8)	34.1 (6.8)	p = 0.96
Wakefulness	30.1 (9.2)	24.1 (8.9)	32.5 (6.6)	26.2 (7.4)	p = 0.28
Emotional valence^c	34.2 (4.8)	35.0 (4.5)	35.5 (3.7)	35.6 (5.4)	p = 0.56
SAM^d
Arousal	3.7 (0.98)	4.3 (0.70)	3.8 (0.68)	4.1 (0.96)	p = 0.42
Dominance	3.5 (0.64)	3.6 (0.63)	3.8 (0.56)	3.6 (0.83)	p = 1.00
Emotional valence^c	1.9 (0.92)	1.5 (0.64)	1.6 (0.51)	1.7 (0.80)	p = 0.04

A nominally significant reduction in valence in the SAM was not seen in the MDBF. The mean (SD) is shown. ANOVA of drug-by-time of application interactions did not identify any significant effects. Wakefulness (MDBF) was significantly reduced after the scan.
↵ a Data are from Spielberger (1988).
↵ b One subject failed to fill out a questionnaire for the MDBF (Steyer et al., 1994).
↵ c Higher equals more positive.
↵ d Data are from Bradley and Lang (1994).

Table 2.

Significant differences in amygdala activation and connectivity

All reported voxels are significant at p < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons within the amygdala ROI (activation) or brainstem ROI (connectivity), except for ^*p = 0.077, corrected. Coordinates are in millimeters relative to the anterior commissure in the space defined by the MNI template.