ArticleNature neuroscience2020
Social touch promotes interfemale communication via activation of parvocellular oxytocin neurons.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06783972 (The Effect of Touching the Fetal Head of the Pregnant on the Duration of the Second Stage of Labor and the Mother-Baby Interaction During the Perineal Crowning Phase), which is not on this map. Cited by 124 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effect of Touching the Fetal Head of the Pregnant on the Duration of the Second Stage of Labor and the Mother-Baby Interaction During the Perineal Crowning Phase
Who cites it
124 citing papers in PubMed.
- Subcutaneous Oxytocin Injection Reduces Heat Pain: A Randomized-Controlled Trial.The journal of pain · 2024Trial
- Effects of dopamine and opioid receptor antagonism on the neural processing of social and nonsocial rewards.Human brain mapping · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Long-term metabolic and cardiovascular health benefits from romantic partner touch in older adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Decoding the Oxytocinergic and Behavioral Signatures of Milk Ejection.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Article
- Mapping of oxytocin- and arginine vasopressin-expressing neurons with calbindin 1 or reelin in the male mouse brain.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Sex-specific regulation of social play in juvenile rats by oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamus and oxytocin signaling in the nucleus accumbens.Hormones and behavior · 2026Article
- Social touch-like tactile stimulation alleviates stress-induced anxiety-like behavior by enhancing the oxytocin level in the prefrontal cortex.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Epineuronal space: an emerging hidden hierarchy bridges neuron and mind space.Cell & bioscience · 2026Review
- Oxytocin neurons in the anterior and posterior paraventricular nucleus have distinct behavioral functions and electrophysiological profiles.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Review
- Bidirectional regulation of social memory by two distinct types of GABAergic neurons in the lateral septum.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Oxytocin Modulation of Spinal Circuits Drives Therapeutic Benefits of Massage.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Divergent Effects of Peripheral vs. Central Oxytocin Administration on Observational Fear Behavior in Male and Female Mice.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Oxytocin facilitates social behavior of female rats via selective modulation of interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Astrocytes mediate a positive feedback loop for oxytocin.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Oxytocin release patterns and effects, with a focus on touch, social interaction, and closeness.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Circuit logic of oxytocin and vasopressin complementary actions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Repetitive unidirectional spinal tactile stimulation engages microglial Bmal1 pathways to promote synaptic remodeling in the mPFC of adolescent VPA-exposed mice.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2025Article
- Tactile stimulation reverses painful stimuli outcomes via PVN-VTA oxytocin circuitry and dopaminergic regulation.Communications biology · 2025Article
64 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on bySocial contacts.2020
Authors and funding
23 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) is a great facilitator of social life but, although its effects on socially relevant brain regions have been extensively studied, OT neuron activity during actual social interactions remains unexplored. Most OT neurons are magnocellular neurons, which simultaneously project to the pituitary and forebrain regions involved in social behaviors. In the present study, we show that a much smaller population of OT neurons, parvocellular neurons that do not project to the pituitary but synapse onto magnocellular neurons, is preferentially activated by somatosensory stimuli. This activation is transmitted to the larger population of magnocellular neurons, which consequently show coordinated increases in their activity during social interactions between virgin female rats. Selectively activating these parvocellular neurons promotes social motivation, whereas inhibiting them reduces social interactions. Thus, parvocellular OT neurons receive particular inputs to control social behavior by coordinating the responses of the much larger population of magnocellular OT neurons.
Indexed as
Identifiers
32719563What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.