Opioids and social bonding: Effect of naltrexone on feelings of social connection and ventral striatum activity to close others.

ABSTRACT: Close social bonds are critical to immediate and long-term well-being. However, the neurochemical mechanisms by which we remain connected to our closest loved ones are not well understood. Opioids have long been theorized to contribute to social bonding via their actions on the brain. But feelings of social connection toward one's own close others and direct comparisons of ventral striatum (VS) activity in response to close others and strangers, a neural correlate of social bonding, have not been explored. Therefore, the current clinical trial examined whether opioids causally affect neural and experiential signatures of social bonding. Eighty participants were administered naltrexone (n = 40), an opioid antagonist that blocks natural opioid processing, or placebo (n = 40) before completin

SUBMITTER: Inagaki TK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7021584 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature