Oxytocin modulates the temporal dynamics of resting EEG networks.

Schiller, Bastian; König, Thomas; Heinrichs, Markus (2019). Oxytocin modulates the temporal dynamics of resting EEG networks. Scientific reports, 9(1), p. 13418. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41598-019-49636-6

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Oxytocin is a key modulator of social interaction, but we possess little knowledge of its underlying effects on neuropsychological processes. We used a spatio-temporal EEG microstates analysis to reveal oxytocin's effects on the temporal dynamics of intrinsically generated activity in neural networks. Given oxytocin's known anxiolytic effects, we hypothesized that it increases the temporal stability of the four archetypal EEG resting networks. Eighty-six male participants had received oxytocin or placebo intranasally before we recorded their resting EEG. As hypothesized, oxytocin globally increased the average duration of the four archetypal resting networks and specifically decreased the occurrence and coverage of an autonomic processing-related network to benefit greater coverage of an attention-related network. Moreover, these neurophysiological changes were more pronounced in participants with high anxiety levels and strong subjectively experienced effects of the oxytocin administration. In sum, our study shows that oxytocin reduces rapid switching among neural resting networks by increasing their temporal stability. Specifically, it seems to reduce the brain's need for preparing the internally-oriented processing of autonomic information, thus enabling the externally-oriented processing of social information. Changes in the temporal dynamics of resting networks might underlie oxytocin's anxiolytic effects - potentially informing innovative psychobiological treatment strategies.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Translational Research Center

UniBE Contributor:

König, Thomas

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

2045-2322

Publisher:

Springer Nature

Language:

English

Submitter:

Thomas König

Date Deposited:

10 Dec 2019 09:58

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:32

Publisher DOI:

10.1038/s41598-019-49636-6

PubMed ID:

31558733

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.135374

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/135374

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