The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology
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Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol. · Oct 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialOxytocin Facilitates Approach Behavior to Positive Social Stimuli via Decreasing Anterior Insula Activity.
The neuropeptide oxytocin can extensively modulate human social behavior and affective processing, and its effects can be interpreted in terms of mediating approach-avoidance motivational processes. However, little is known about how oxytocin mediates approach-avoidance behavior and particularly the underlying neural mechanisms. ⋯ Given the role of the ventral anterior insula in emotional processing and the dorsal anterior insula in salience processing, the oxytocin-induced suppression of activity in these regions may indicate that oxytocin is acting to reduce interference from hyper-activity in core regions of the emotional and salience networks when approaching salient positive social stimuli and thereby to promote social interaction. Thus, oxytocin may be of potential therapeutic benefit for psychiatric disorders exhibiting avoidance of social stimuli.