Department of Consultation-Liaison-Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Raemistrasse 100, 8091, Zurich, Switzerland.
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2020 Dec;14(6):2073-2083. doi: 10.1007/s11682-019-00143-2.
Oxytocin is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter and has been originally recognized for its role in childbirth and lactation. Later, it became widely known as a "cuddle hormone" that induces trusting behavior towards strangers and reduces social stress and anxiety. Several studies showed that oxytocin influences empathic behavior and has prosocial effects. The anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula are brain regions that are active when humans observe fear in others. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether oxytocin administration affects activity in these regions depending on whether a threat is directed at another person (empathy) compared to when the threat is directed at the subject itself (fear). Our findings demonstrate increased anterior cingulate cortex activation after oxytocin administration in the fear, but not in the empathy condition. Furthermore, oxytocin administration was associated with deceased anterior insula activity in the empathy condition. However, our findings do not support the idea that oxytocin generally augments activity in brain regions associated with empathy. Thereby this study supports current research questioning that oxytocin has exclusively prosocial effects on human behavior. Rather, the effect of oxytocin depends on various contextual (e.g. presence of a familiar person) and interindividual (e.g. sex, mental disorder) factors. Therefore, to consider oxytocin an empathy inducing hormone is an oversimplification and future research should focus on factors moderating oxytocin effects.
催产素既是一种激素也是一种神经递质，最初因其在分娩和哺乳中的作用而被认识。后来，它被广泛认为是一种“拥抱激素”，能诱导对陌生人的信任行为，减少社交压力和焦虑。几项研究表明，催产素影响同理心行为，并具有亲社会效应。扣带前回和前岛叶是人类观察他人恐惧时活跃的大脑区域。因此，本研究旨在调查催产素给药是否会根据威胁是针对他人（同理心）还是针对自身（恐惧）而影响这些区域的活动。我们的研究结果表明，在恐惧条件下，催产素给药后扣带前回的激活增加，但在同理心条件下则没有。此外，在同理心条件下，催产素给药与前岛叶活动的减少有关。然而，我们的研究结果并不支持催产素通常增强与同理心相关的大脑区域活动的观点。因此，这项研究支持当前质疑催产素对人类行为具有纯粹亲社会影响的研究。相反，催产素的作用取决于各种情境（例如，是否有熟悉的人）和个体间因素（例如，性别、精神障碍）。因此，将催产素视为诱导同理心的激素是一种过于简单化的说法，未来的研究应该关注调节催产素作用的因素。
