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. 2014 Feb 17:8:48.
doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00048. eCollection 2014.

The oxytocin paradox

Richard A I Bethlehem  1 , Simon Baron-Cohen  2 , Jack van Honk  3 , Bonnie Auyeung  4 , Peter A Bos  3
Affiliations

The oxytocin paradox

Richard A I Bethlehem et al. Front Behav Neurosci. .
No abstract available

Keywords: anxiety; autism spectrum disorder; oxytocin; reward; reward processing; translational research.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Oxytocin reduces anxiety and stress for social interaction and increases social reward sensitivity. With respect to the latter, OXT likely affects hedonistic reward processing (e.g., “liking”) via its interaction with the opioid system and incentive reward processing (e.g., “wanting”) via a striatal-dopamine pathway (Berridge et al., 2009). Which pathway is affected likely depends on the specific context. Both reduced anxiety and increased reward sensitivity might increase sensitivity for social salience but also directly improve aspects of social cognition depending on person and context. Furthermore the subsequent contextual or environmental feedback affects the sensitivity and plasticity of the OXT system depending on its valence (e.g., positive or negative feedback). Positive feedback after OXT administration, such as pleasant social interaction, might reinforce the sensitivity for social reward and further decrease anxiety. This feedback potentially also alters the plasticity of the OXT system. For example, more OXT may be released during social interaction. Another potential scenario is that OXT administration leads to decreased anxiety, which in turn leads to heightened social salience. Which may also involve paying more attention to (potentially) negative social cues. Administration of OXT might therefore have a stronger impact on this negative feedback in neurotypical individuals, as was shown by Striepens et al. (2012). Lastly, any type of feedback resulting from altered social reward processing is likely to affect reward learning.
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