Journal
HORMONES AND BEHAVIOR
Volume 87, Issue -, Pages 16-24Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2016.10.009
Keywords
Immediate early gene; Fos; Social behavior; Sexual behavior; Nucleus accumbens; Striatum; Functional connectivity; Functional coupling; Social decision making network; Social behavior network; Pair bonding network
Categories
Funding
- NIH [R01MH096983, 1P50MH100023]
- NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs [OD P51OD11132]
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Social behavior is regulated by conserved neural networks across vertebrates. Variation in the organization of neuropeptide systems across these networks is thought to contribute to individual and species diversity in network function during social contexts. For example, oxytocin (OT) is an ancient neuropeptide that binds to OT receptors (OTRs) in the brain and modulates social and reproductive behavior across vertebrate species, including humans. Central OTRs exhibit extraordinarily diverse expression patterns that are associated with individual and species differences in social behavior. In voles, OTR density in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) a region important for social and reward learning is associated with individual and species variation in social attachment behavior. Here we test whether OTRs in the NAc modulate a social salience network (SSN) a network of interconnected brain nuclei thought to encode valence and incentive salience of sociosensory cues during a social context in the socially monogamous male prairie vole. Using a selective OTR antagonist, we test whether activation of OTRs in the NAc during sociosexual interaction and mating modulates expression of the immediate early gene product Fos across nuclei of the SSN. We show that blockade of endogenous OTR signaling in the NAc during sociosexual interaction and mating does not strongly modulate levels of Fos expression in individual nodes of the network, but strongly modulates patterns of correlated Fos expression between the NAc and other SSN nuclei. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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