L'ocytocine intranasale améliore la connectivité fonctionnelle corticostriatale intrinsèque chez les femmes

Aperçu: G.M.

L'ocytocine peut influencer divers comportements humains et la connectivité à travers les réseaux sous-corticaux et corticaux.  

Une analyse indépendante de l'expression du gène du récepteur de l'ocytocine (OXTR) dans les zones subcorticales et corticales humaines a été réalisée pour déterminer la plausibilité des effets directs de l'ocytocine sur l'OXTR. 

Chez les femmes, l'OXTR a été fortement exprimé dans les régions striatées et autres sous-corticales, mais a montré une expression modeste dans les zones corticales. L'ocytocine a augmenté la connectivité entre les circuits corticostriatals généralement impliqués dans la récompense, l'émotion, la communication sociale, le traitement de la langue et de la douleur. Cet effet a été de 1,39 écart-type au-dessus de l'effet nul d'une différence entre l'ocytocine et le placebo. Cet effet lié à l'ocytocine sur la connectivité corticostriatale covalente avec des traits autistiques, de sorte que l'augmentation de la connectivité associée à l'ocytocine était plus forte chez les personnes ayant des caractères autistiques plus élevés. En résumé, l'ocytocine a renforcé la connectivité corticostriatale chez les femmes, en particulier avec les réseaux corticaux impliqués dans les processus social-communicatifs, motivants et affectifs.  

Transl Psychiatry. 2017 Apr 18;7(4):e1099. doi: 10.1038/tp.2017.72.

Intranasal oxytocin enhances intrinsic corticostriatal functional connectivity in women

Bethlehem RAI¹, Lombardo MV^1,2, Lai MC^1,3,4, Auyeung B^1,5, Crockford SK¹, Deakin J^6,7, Soubramanian S^6,8, Sule A⁶, Kundu P^9,10, Voon V^6,7,8,11, Baron-Cohen S^1,12.

Author information

1

Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

2

Department of Psychology, Center for Applied Neuroscience, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.

3

Department of Psychiatry, Child and Youth Mental Health Collaborative at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

4

Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.

5

Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

6

Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

7

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK.

8

Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

9

Brain Imaging Center, Icahn Institute of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY, USA.

10

Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Icahn Institute of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY, USA.

11

National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Council, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

12

CLASS Clinic, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK.

Abstract

Oxytocin may influence various human behaviors and the connectivity across subcortical and cortical networks. Previous oxytocin studies are male biased and often constrained by task-based inferences. Here, we investigate the impact of oxytocin on resting-state connectivity between subcortical and cortical networks in women. We collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on 26 typically developing women 40 min following intranasal oxytocin administration using a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design. Independent components analysis (ICA) was applied to examine connectivity between networks. An independent analysis of oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene expression in human subcortical and cortical areas was carried out to determine plausibility of direct oxytocin effects on OXTR. In women, OXTR was highly expressed in striatal and other subcortical regions, but showed modest expression in cortical areas. Oxytocin increased connectivity between corticostriatal circuitry typically involved in reward, emotion, social communication, language and pain processing. This effect was 1.39 standard deviations above the null effect of no difference between oxytocin and placebo. This oxytocin-related effect on corticostriatal connectivity covaried with autistic traits, such that oxytocin-related increase in connectivity was stronger in individuals with higher autistic traits. In sum, oxytocin strengthened corticostriatal connectivity in women, particularly with cortical networks that are involved in social-communicative, motivational and affective processes. This effect may be important for future work on neurological and psychiatric conditions (for example, autism), particularly through highlighting how oxytocin may operate differently for subsets of individuals.

PMID: 28418398

DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.72