Introduction: Over the past decade, oxytocin has transferred from a peptide hormone that regulates birth-related processes to a neurotransmitter with magical abilities. Various behaviors and cognitive skills have been linked to oxytocin, among which social behavior and cognition have received the most attention. Also, various clinical applications of oxytocin are under development and are expected to be available soon. Numerous clinical trials are being conducted to investigate the effects of this hormone.
Methods: This article provides a brief review of the latest findings on the role of oxytocin in various types of social behaviors. PubMed and google scholar databases were used to gather this information using these keywords: oxytocin, social cognition, relationships, and cognitive neuroscience.
Results: It has been documented that oxytocin regulates certain social behaviors such as parturition, lactation, parental nurturing, perception and the processing of facial expressions, empathy, cooperation, trusting behaviors, etc. Oxytocin works by improving the salience of social stimuli, mitigating the signal-to-noise ratio, and modulating synaptic plasticity.
The effect of oxytocin on trust has been well documented. First, it was argued that it causes the promotion of trust in human subjects. Later, these findings were supported by neuroimaging studies indicating that oxytocin reduces the activation of the amygdala and dorsal striatum. Another argument for explaining the effect of oxytocin on trust is that it increases social cohesion by facilitating conformity to other members of groups we trust. It is suggested that oxytocin uses the amygdalo-fronal-striatal to mitigate motivation to respond to social clues.
Administering oxytocin as a treatment for improving social cognition due to its few adverse effect, availability, and the fact that it is easy to use has been widespread. Clinical trials administering oxytocin have risen significantly in the last few years, both in psychiatric populations and others with social deficits. However, many aspects still have been neglected, such as neuroendocrine biomarkers and standardized evaluation of social behaviors. These factors must be addressed in future clinical trials and research.
Conclusion: The new emphasis on the effect of oxytocin on social behavior has been a favorite topic of research in the last ten years. Researchers have discussed that oxytocin can regulate prosocial behaviors and has been considered a treatment for several disorders with social deficits. However, there are still many unknowns on its procedures of action and efficiency.
Keywords: oxytocin, social cognition, relationships, and cognitive neuroscience.