Oxytocin Enhances Social Recognition by Modulating Cortical Control of Early Olfactory Processing

Overview

Journal Neuron

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Neurology

Date 2016 Apr 27

PMID 27112498

Citations 149

Authors

Lars-Lennart Oettl

Namasivayam Ravi

Miriam Schneider

Max F Scheller

Peggy Schneider

Mariela Mitre

Miriam Da Silva Gouveia

Robert C Froemke

Moses V Chao

W Scott Young

Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg

Valery Grinevich

Roman Shusterman

Wolfgang Kelsch

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Oxytocin promotes social interactions and recognition of conspecifics that rely on olfaction in most species. The circuit mechanisms through which oxytocin modifies olfactory processing are incompletely understood. Here, we observed that optogenetically induced oxytocin release enhanced olfactory exploration and same-sex recognition of adult rats. Consistent with oxytocin's function in the anterior olfactory cortex, particularly in social cue processing, region-selective receptor deletion impaired social recognition but left odor discrimination and recognition intact outside a social context. Oxytocin transiently increased the drive of the anterior olfactory cortex projecting to olfactory bulb interneurons. Cortical top-down recruitment of interneurons dynamically enhanced the inhibitory input to olfactory bulb projection neurons and increased the signal-to-noise of their output. In summary, oxytocin generates states for optimized information extraction in an early cortical top-down network that is required for social interactions with potential implications for sensory processing deficits in autism spectrum disorders.

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