Social experience alters oxytocinergic modulation in the nucleus accumbens of female prairie voles.

ABSTRACT: Social relationships are dynamic and evolve with shared and personal experiences. Whether the functional role of social neuromodulators also evolves with experience to shape the trajectory of relationships is unknown. We utilized pair bonding in the socially monogamous prairie vole as an example of socio-sexual experience that dramatically alters behaviors displayed toward other individuals. We investigated oxytocin-dependent modulation of excitatory synaptic transmission in the nucleus accumbens as a function of pair-bonding status. We found that an oxytocin receptor agonist decreases the amplitude of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs) in sexually naive virgin, but not pair-bonded, female voles, while it increases the amplitude of electrically evoked EPSCs in paired vol

SUBMITTER: Borie AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8930613 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature