The Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Neural and Behavioral Responses to Social Touch in the Form of Massage.

ABSTRACT: Manually-administered massage can potently increase endogenous oxytocin concentrations and neural activity in social cognition and reward regions and intranasal oxytocin can increase the pleasantness of social touch. In the present study, we investigated whether intranasal oxytocin modulates behavioral and neural responses to foot massage applied manually or by machine using a randomized placebo-controlled within-subject pharmaco-fMRI design. 46 male participants underwent blocks of massage of each type where they both received and imagined receiving the massage. Intranasal oxytocin significantly increased subjective pleasantness ratings of the manual but not the machine massage and neural responses in key regions involved in reward (orbitofrontal cortex, dorsal striatum and ventral tegmen

SUBMITTER: Chen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7746800 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature