The effect of Oxytocin on Social Perception and Social Reward

项目概要（见说明）：催产素（OT）作为中枢神经系统（CNS）的神经调节剂，促进动物的社会行为和联系。由于其亲社会效应，研究人员已经开始探索OT是否可以作为一种新的药物疗法来治疗以社交障碍为特征的各种神经精神疾病，如自闭症。事实上，现在已经有几项研究表明，鼻内给药（IN）OT可以改善高功能自闭症成年人的亲社会行为，包括合作，阅读面部表情，并将注意力集中在面部的眼睛区域。然而，IN-OT影响灵长类动物亲社会行为的确切机制仍不清楚，包括OT是否通过催产素受体系统（OXTR）或通过外周反馈在大脑中起作用。因此，虽然OT是一种非常有吸引力的潜在药物疗法，可以改善人类的社会障碍和增强亲社会行为，但关于其作用机制和整体功能仍存在许多问题。在非人类灵长类动物中尤其如此。虽然它们代表了筛选OT的行为和神经生物学效应的理想临床前模型，但只有少数研究调查了OT对非人灵长类动物社会认知的影响。本研究的目的是比较IN-OT和脑室内（ICV）OT以及OXTR拮抗剂对恒河猴社会感知社会奖励任务的影响。所使用的任务旨在反映人类IN-OT研究中使用的任务，并解决一些已知在自闭症中受损的相同社交技能，例如，社会刺激的显著性、社会奖励、熟悉面孔的再认和情绪分类。此外，在眼动追踪期间，将向猴子展示熟悉和不熟悉的猴子参与社交互动的复杂视频，以确定IN-OT如何影响社交注意力的集中。该项目将提供有关OT如何影响社会感知和社会奖励的开创性数据，并有助于其药物开发。

PROJECT SUMMARY (See instructions): Oxytocin (OT) functions as a neuromodulator in the central nervous system (CNS) to promote social behavior and affiliation in animals and. Because of its prosocial effects, researchers have begun to explore whether OT could be used as a novel pharmacotherapy to treat a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by social impairments, such as autism. Indeed, several studies have now emerged suggesting that intranasally administered (IN) OT can improve prosocial behavior in adults with high-functioning autism, including cooperation, reading facial expressions, and directing attention to the eye region in faces . However, the exact mechanisms by which IN-OT influence prosocial behavior in primates remain unclear, including whether OT acts centrally in the brain through the oxytocin receptor system (OXTR) or through peripheral feedback. Therefore, while OT is an extremely attractive potentials pharmacotherapy that could function to ameliorate social impairments and enhance prosocial behavior in humans, many questions remain about its mechanism of action and overall function. This is particularly true in nonhuman primates. Although they represent an ideal preclinical model for screening the behavioral and neurobiological effects of OT, only a handful of studies investigated the effect of OT on nonhuman primate social cognition. It is the goal of this study to compare the effect of IN-OT and intracerebroventricular (ICV) OT, and an OXTR-antagonist on tasks that address social perception social reward in rhesus monkeys. The tasks used are designed to mirror those used in studies of IN-OT in humans, and address some ofthe same social skills known to be impaired in autism, e.g., salience of social stimuli, social reward, recognition of familiar faces, and emotion categorization. Additionally, monkeys will be shown complex videos of familiar and unfamiliar monkeys engaged in social interactions during eye-tracking to determine how IN-OT affects the convergence of social attention. This project will provide seminal data on how OT affects social perception and social reward and contribute to it pharmacotherapeutic development.