Functional Neuroimaging of Human Hypothalamus in Socioemotional Behavior: A Systematic Review

Abstract

There exist extensive animal research and lesion studies in humans demonstrating a tight association between the hypothalamus and socioemotional behavior. However, human neuroimaging literature in this direction is still rather limited. In order to reexamine the functional role of this region in regulating human social behavior, we here provided a synthesis of neuroimaging studies showing hypothalamic activation during affiliative, cooperative interactions, and in relation to ticklish laughter and humor. In addition, studies reporting involvement of the hypothalamus during aggressive and antisocial interactions were also considered. Our systematic review revealed a growing number of investigations demonstrating that the evolutionary conserved hypothalamic neural circuity is involved in multiple and diverse aspects of human socioemotional behavior. On the basis of the observed heterogeneity of hypothalamus-mediated socioemotional responses, we concluded that the hypothalamus might play an extended functional role for species survival and preservation, ranging from exploratory and approaching behaviors promoting social interactions to aggressive and avoidance responses protecting and defending the established social bonds.

Keywords: affiliative; aggressive; altruism; antisocial; cooperation; defense; emotion; fMRI; hypothalamus; love; neuroimaging; oxytocin; parent-child; partner; prosocial; social brain network; trust.

Figure 1

Study flow chart. Reason 1: do not investigate neural basis of maternal love [48]. Reason 2: articles on clinical populations [49,50]. Reason 3: do not report hypothalamic activation.

Figure 2

Peak voxel coordinates of hypothalamic clusters reported in the studies included in the review. All peaks were plotted on a brain mesh of Ch2 template using the BrainNet Viewer [51]. On the left and right side are depicted sagittal views and in the center the axial view (bottom-up).