Putnam Philip T, Young Larry J, Gothard Katalin M
Department of Physiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition, Atlanta, Georgia.
Am J Primatol. 2018 Oct;80(10):e22756. doi: 10.1002/ajp.22756. Epub 2018 Jun 19.
Oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide that acts in the brain as a neuromodulator, has been long known to shape maternal physiology and behavior in mammals, however its role in regulating social cognition and behavior in primates has come to the forefront only in the recent decade. Many of the current perspectives on the role of OT in modulating social behavior emerged first from studies in rodents, where invasive techniques with a high degree of precision have permitted the mechanistic dissection of OT-related behaviors, as well as their underlying neural circuits in exquisite detail. In parallel, behavioral and imaging studies in humans have suggested that brain OT may similarly influence human social behavior and neural activity. These studies in rodents and humans have spurred interest in the therapeutic potential of targeting the OT system to remedy deficits in social cognition and behavior that are present across numerous psychiatric disorders. Yet there remains a tremendous gap in our mechanistic understanding of the influence of brain OT on social neural circuitry between rodents and man. In fact, very little is known regarding the neural mechanisms by which exogenous or endogenous OT influences human social cognition, limiting its therapeutic potential. Here we discuss how non-human primates (NHPs) are uniquely positioned to now bridge the gaps in knowledge provided by the precise circuit-level approaches widely used in rodent models and the behavioral, imaging, and clinical studies in humans. This review provides a perspective on what has been achieved, and what can be expected from exploring the role of OT in shaping social behaviors in NHPs in the coming years.
催产素（OT）是一种在大脑中作为神经调节剂起作用的神经肽，长期以来人们都知道它能塑造哺乳动物的母体生理和行为，然而，它在调节灵长类动物社会认知和行为方面的作用直到最近十年才成为研究的前沿。目前许多关于OT在调节社会行为中作用的观点最初来自于对啮齿动物的研究，在这些研究中，高度精确的侵入性技术使得对OT相关行为及其潜在神经回路进行精细的机制剖析成为可能。与此同时，对人类的行为和成像研究表明，大脑中的OT可能同样会影响人类的社会行为和神经活动。这些对啮齿动物和人类的研究激发了人们对靶向OT系统以弥补众多精神疾病中存在的社会认知和行为缺陷的治疗潜力的兴趣。然而，在我们对大脑OT对啮齿动物和人类社会神经回路影响的机制理解方面，仍然存在巨大差距。事实上，关于外源性或内源性OT影响人类社会认知的神经机制，我们所知甚少，这限制了其治疗潜力。在这里，我们讨论了非人类灵长类动物（NHP）如何独特地处于能够弥合啮齿动物模型中广泛使用的精确电路水平方法与人类行为、成像和临床研究之间知识差距的位置。这篇综述提供了一个关于已经取得的成果以及未来几年探索OT在塑造NHP社会行为中的作用可以预期的成果的观点。
