Summary: The hormone oxytocin, which is released in social bonding and touch, functions like a dimmer switch, influenced by the situation, according to researchers.
A study of 42 women found oxytocin levels were higher when their partners stroked their arms first, then fell, only to increase again when a stranger did the same thing. When the stranger touched their arms first, there was no change in oxytocin levels.
The research has implications for administering synthetic oxytocin, such as in nasal sprays, to treat mood-affecting conditions.
Key Facts:
- Researchers at Linköping University and the University of Skövde in Sweden have found that the touch of another person may increase levels of the “feelgood” hormone oxytocin, but the context really matters.
- The study involved monitoring the brain activity of 42 women while their male partners and a stranger stroked their arms, and repeatedly taking blood tests to see whether oxytocin levels in their blood changed over time.
- The researchers found that when the women’s partners were the first to stroke their arms, their oxytocin levels increased during the social interaction, then fell, only to increase again when the stranger did the same thing. However, when the stranger touched them first, there was no change in oxytocin levels.
Source: Linköping University
The touch of another person may increase levels of the “feelgood” hormone oxytocin. But the context really matters. The situation impacts oxytocin levels not only in the moment, but also later, as is shown by researchers at Linköping University and the University of Skövde in Sweden.
Their study has been published in the scientific journal eLife.
An embrace from a parent, a warm hand on your shoulder or a caress from a romantic partner are examples of how touch can strengthen social bonds between people and influence emotions. But although touch and the sense of touch have a very important function, knowledge of how this actually works is still lacking.
Studies in animals have shown that the hormone oxytocin is linked to touch and social bonding. However, many questions remain unanswered when it comes to oxytocin’s role in human social interactions and how this hormone can influence and be influenced by the brain. To study this closer, researchers have examined what happens in the body when we feel a soft touch.
“We saw that the body’s oxytocin response to touch was influenced by the situation: what had happened a few moments earlier and with whom the interaction takes place. The hormone does not function like an on/off button, but more like a dimmer switch,” says India Morrison, senior associate professor at the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at Linköping University.
42 women took part in the study, published in eLife. The actual experiment consisted of the woman’s male partner stroking her arm with his hand, while her brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI.
The experiment also involved repeatedly taking blood tests to see whether oxytocin levels in the woman’s blood changed over time. Combining the various measurements allowed the researchers to examine whether hormone levels were linked to brain activity.
The measurements from the social interaction between the woman and her partner were compared with what happened when instead an unknown, non-threatening man touched her arm in the same way. In half of the experiments, her partner was the first to stroke her arm, and in the other half it was the stranger. The participating women were informed of who was stroking their arm.
“Our basic question was whether oxytocin levels would be higher when the woman’s partner touched her arm than when a stranger did it. The answer was yes, but only when her partner was the first to stroke her arm,” says India Morrison.
The researchers found that when her partner was first, the women’s oxytocin levels increased during the social interaction, then fell, only to increase again when the stranger did the same thing.
However, when the stranger touched her first, there was no change in oxytocin levels. And when her partner then stroked her arm, there was only a slight increase. The changes in oxytocin levels were linked to activity in regions of the brain important for the contextualization of events.
Oxytocin is released in a variety of situations and has several functions in the body.
“It might be good to bear in mind that context matters, for instance when providing synthetic oxytocin in the form of a nasal spray as part of the treatment of mood-affecting conditions,” says India Morrison.
Funding: The study was supported by the Swedish Research Council.
About this social neuroscience research news
Author: Karin Söderlund Leifler
Source: Linköping University
Contact: Karin Söderlund Leifler – Linköping University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Human endogenous oxytocin and its neural correlates show adaptive responses to social touch based on recent social context” by Linda Handlin et al. eLife
Abstract
Human endogenous oxytocin and its neural correlates show adaptive responses to social touch based on recent social context
Both oxytocin (OT) and touch are key mediators of social attachment. In rodents, tactile stimulation elicits the endogenous release of OT, potentially facilitating attachment and other forms of prosocial behavior, yet the relationship between endogenous OT and neural modulation remains unexplored in humans.
Using a serial sampling of plasma hormone levels during functional neuroimaging across two successive social interactions, we show that contextual circumstances of social touch influence not only current hormonal and brain responses but also later responses.
Namely, touch from a male to his female romantic partner enhanced her subsequent OT release for touch from an unfamiliar stranger, yet females’ OT responses to partner touch were dampened following stranger touch.
Hypothalamus and dorsal raphe activation reflected plasma OT changes during the initial social interaction. In the subsequent interaction, precuneus and parietal-temporal cortex pathways tracked time- and context-dependent variables in an OT-dependent manner.
This OT-dependent cortical modulation included a region of the medial prefrontal cortex that also covaried with plasma cortisol, suggesting an influence on stress responses.
These findings demonstrate that modulation between hormones and the brain during human social interactions can flexibly adapt to features of social context over time.
