Oxytocin blurs the self‐other distinction during trait judgments and reduces medial prefrontal cortex responses

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) may act either to increase or blur the distinction between self and other and thereby promote either more selfish or altruistic behaviors. To attempt to distinguish between these two possibilities we performed a double‐blind, between‐subject, placebo‐controlled design study to investigate the effect of intranasal OXT on self and other (mother, classmate, or stranger) trait judgments in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results showed that OXT reduced response times for making both self and other judgments, but also reduced the accuracy of their subsequent recall, thereby abolishing the normal self‐bias observed in this task. OXT also abolished the positive correlation between response and self‐esteem scale scores seen in the PLC group, suggesting that its effects were strongest in individuals with higher levels of self‐esteem. A whole‐brain functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis revealed that OXT also reduced responses during both self and other trait judgments in the dorsal (dmPFC) and ventral (vmPFC) medial prefrontal cortex. A subsequent region of interest analysis revealed that behavioral performance and self‐esteem scale scores were associated with dmPFC activation and its functional connectivity with the anterior cingulate and between the vmPFC and posterior cingulate. Thus overall, while OXT may improve speed of decision making in self ‐vs. other trait judgments it also blunts the normal bias towards remembering self‐attributes and reduces mPFC responses and connectivity with other cortical midline regions involved in self‐processing. This is consistent with the view that OXT can reduce self‐centered behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2512–2527, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

Oxytocin facilitates the sensation of social stress

Essentially all social species experience social stress which can be a catalyst for detriments in mental and physical health. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been shown to produce anxiolytic and antistress effects, thereby qualifying the OXT system as a promising drug target in the treatment of stress‐related disorders. However, recently it has been shown that OXT can have anxiogenic effects as well. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 60 healthy men while they were exposed to social stress after they received either intranasal OXT (24 IU) or placebo treatment. Although OXT administration did not alter salivary cortisol levels as a surrogate marker of stress axis activity, our participants initially reported an increment in perceived social stress. This behavioral effect was paralleled on the neural level by increased activity in the precuneus and cingulate cortex. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that OXT can induce a self‐referential processing bias which facilitates the sensation of social stress in the absence of altered endocrine responses. Hum Brain Mapp 35:4741–4750, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

Oxytocin enhances cognitive control of food craving in women

In developed countries, obesity has become an epidemic resulting in enormous health care costs for society and serious medical complications for individuals. The homeostatic regulation of food intake is critically dependent on top‐down control of reward‐driven food craving. There is accumulating evidence from animal studies that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) is involved in regulating hunger states and eating behavior, but whether OXT also contributes to cognitive control of food craving in humans is still unclear. We conducted a counter‐balanced, double‐blind, within‐subject, pharmacological magnetic resonance imaging experiment involving 31 healthy women who received 24 IU of intranasal OXT or placebo and were scanned twice while they were exposed to pictures of palatable food. The participants were instructed either to imagine the immediate consumption or to cognitively control the urge to eat the food. Our results show a trend that OXT specifically reduced food craving in the cognitive control condition. On the neural level, these findings were paralleled by an increase of activity in the middle and superior frontal gyrus, precuneus, and cingulate cortex under OXT. Interestingly, the behavioral OXT effect correlated with the OXT‐induced changes in the prefrontal cortex and precuneus. Collectively, the present study provides first evidence that OXT plays a key role in the cognitive regulation of food craving in women by strengthening activity in a broad neurocircuitry implicated in top‐down control and self‐referential processing. Hum Brain Mapp 37:4276–4285, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Disgust sensitivity and eating disorder symptoms in a non-clinical population

In order to further explore the relationship between disgust sensitivity and eating disorder symptoms, 2 studies were carried out. In the first study, 352 higher education students (166 women, 186 men) completed a set of questionnaires measuring various aspects of disgust sensitivity and eating disorder symptoms. A correlational analysis revealed that there were few significant correlations between disgust scales and eating pathology scores. One exception was the relation between disgust sensitivity and external eating behavior, although this link only emerged in women. To investigate this relationship in more detail, Study 2 confronted women high (n = 29) and low (n = 30) on external eating behavior with a series of disgusting and neutral pictures. It was hypothesized that women who scored high on external eating would display shorter viewing times of disgusting pictures (i.e., show more avoidance behavior) than women scoring low on external eating. However, this hypothesis was not confirmed by the data. Altogether, the results of these studies suggest that there seems to be no convincing relationship between disgust sensitivity and eating disorder symptomatology, thereby casting doubts on the role of this individual difference factor in the development of eating pathology.     

Early life stress modulates amygdala‐prefrontal functional connectivity: Implications for oxytocin effects

Recent evidence suggests that early life stress (ELS) changes stress reactivity via reduced resting state functional connectivity (rs‐FC) between amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Oxytocin (OXT) modulates amygdala connectivity and attenuates responses to psychosocial stress, but its effect appears to be moderated by ELS. Here we first investigate the effect of ELS on amygdala‐prefrontal rs‐FC, and examine whether ELS‐associated changes of rs‐FC in this neural circuit predict its response to psychosocial stress. Secondly, we explore the joint effect of OXT and ELS on the amygdala‐prefrontal circuit. Eighteen healthy young males participated in a resting‐state fMRI study of OXT effects using a double‐blind, randomized, placebo‐controlled, within‐subject crossover design. We measured the rs‐FC to bilateral amygdalae and subsequently assessed changes of state anxiety and prefrontal responses to psychosocial stress. Multiple linear regressions showed that ELS, specifically emotional abuse, predicted reduced rs‐FC between the right amygdala and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), which in turn predicted elevated state anxiety after psychosocial stress. In subjects with lower ELS scores, stronger pgACC‐amygdala rs‐FC predicted stronger pgACC deactivation during the psychosocial stress task, and this rest‐task interaction was attenuated by OXT. In subjects with higher ELS scores however, the rest‐task interaction was altered and OXT showed no significant effect. These findings highlight that ELS reduces pgACC‐amygdala rs‐FC and alters how rs‐FC of this circuit predicts its stress responsiveness. Such changes in pgACC‐amygdala functional dynamics may underlie the altered sensitivity to the effects of OXT after ELS. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5328–5339, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

Neural signatures of fairness‐related normative decision making in the ultimatum game: A coordinate‐based meta‐analysis

The willingness to incur personal costs to enforce prosocial norms represents a hallmark of human civilization. Although recent neuroscience studies have used the ultimatum game to understand the neuropsychological mechanisms that underlie the enforcement of fairness norms; however, a precise characterization of the neural systems underlying fairness‐related norm enforcement remains elusive. In this study, we used a coordinate‐based meta‐analysis on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies using the ultimatum game with the goal to provide an additional level of evidence for the refinement of the underlying neural architecture of this human puzzling behavior. Our results demonstrated a convergence of reported activation foci in brain networks associated with psychological components of fairness‐related normative decision making, presumably reflecting a reflexive and intuitive system (System 1) and a reflective and deliberate system (System 2). System 1 (anterior insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex [PFC]) may be associated with the reflexive and intuitive responses to norm violations, representing a motivation to punish norm violators. Those intuitive responses conflict with economic self‐interest, encoded in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which may engage cognitive control from a reflective and deliberate System 2 to resolve the conflict by either suppressing (ventrolateral PFC, dorsomedial PFC, left dorsolateral PFC, and rostral ACC) the intuitive responses or over‐riding self‐interest (right dorsolateral PFC). Taken together, we suggest that fairness‐related norm enforcement recruits an intuitive system for rapid evaluation of norm violations and a deliberate system for integrating both social norms and self‐interest to regulate the intuitive system in favor of more flexible decision making. Hum Brain Mapp 36:591–602, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

Oxytocin selectively facilitates learning with social feedback and increases activity and functional connectivity in emotional memory and reward processing regions

In male Caucasian subjects, learning is facilitated by receipt of social compared with non‐social feedback, and the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) facilitates this effect. In this study, we have first shown a cultural difference in that male Chinese subjects actually perform significantly worse in the same reinforcement associated learning task with social (emotional faces) compared with non‐social feedback. Nevertheless, in two independent double‐blind placebo (PLC) controlled between‐subject design experiments we found OXT still selectively facilitated learning with social feedback. Similar to Caucasian subjects this OXT effect was strongest with feedback using female rather than male faces. One experiment performed in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging showed that during the response, but not feedback phase of the task, OXT selectively increased activity in the amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and putamen during the social feedback condition, and functional connectivity between the amygdala and insula and caudate. Therefore, OXT may be increasing the salience and reward value of anticipated social feedback. In the PLC group, response times and state anxiety scores during social feedback were associated with signal changes in these same regions but not in the OXT group. OXT may therefore have also facilitated learning by reducing anxiety in the social feedback condition. Overall our results provide the first evidence for cultural differences in social facilitation of learning per se, but a similar selective enhancement of learning with social feedback under OXT. This effect of OXT may be associated with enhanced responses and functional connectivity in emotional memory and reward processing regions. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2132–2146, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The moral affiliations of disgust: a functional MRI study.

Recent investigations in cognitive neuroscience have shown that ordinary human behavior is guided by emotions that are uniquely human in their experiential and interpersonal aspects. These "moral emotions" contribute importantly to human social behavior and derive from the neurobehavioral reorganization of the basic plan of emotions that pervade mammalian life. Disgust is one prototypic emotion with multiple domains that include viscerosomatic reaction patterns and subjective experiences linked to (a) the sensory properties of a class of natural stimuli, (b) a set of aversive experiences and (c) a unique mode of experiencing morality. In the current investigation, we tested the hypotheses that (a) the experience of disgust devoid of moral connotations ("pure disgust") can be subjectively and behaviorally differentiated from the experience of disgust disguised in the moral emotion of "indignation" and that (b) pure disgust and indignation may have partially overlapping neural substrates. Thirteen normal adult volunteers were investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging as they read a series of statements depicting scenarios of pure disgust, indignation, and neutral emotion. After the scanning procedure, they assigned one basic and one moral emotion to each stimulus from an array of six basic and seven moral emotions. Results indicated that (a) emotional stimuli may evoke pure disgust with or without indignation, (b) these different aspects of the experience of disgust could be elicited by a set of written statements, and (c) pure disgust and indignation recruited both overlapping and distinct brain regions, mainly in the frontal and temporal lobes. This work underscores the importance of the prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices in moral judgment and in the automatic attribution of morality to social events. Human disgust encompasses a variety of emotional experiences that are ingrained in frontal, temporal, and limbic networks.     

Rapid automatic segmentation of the human cerebellum and its lobules (RASCAL)—Implementation and application of the patch‐based label‐fusion technique with a template library to segment the human cerebellum

Reliable and fast segmentation of the human cerebellum with its complex architecture of lobes and lobules has been a challenge for the past decades. Emerging knowledge of the functional integration of the cerebellum in various sensori‐motor and cognitive‐behavioral circuits demands new automatic segmentation techniques, with accuracies similar to manual segmentations, but applicable to large subject numbers in a reasonable time frame. This article presents the development and application of a novel pipeline for r apid a utomatic s egmentation of the human c erebellum a nd its l obules (RASCAL) combining patch‐based label‐fusion and a template library of manually labeled cerebella of 16 healthy controls from the International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM) database. Leave‐one‐out experiments revealed a good agreement between manual and automatic segmentations (Dice kappa = 0.82). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated to test reliability of segmented volumes and were highest (ICC > 0.9) for global measures (total and hemispherical grey and white matter) followed by larger lobules of the posterior lobe (ICC > 0.8). Further we applied the pipeline to all 152 young healthy controls of the ICBM database to look for hemispheric and gender differences. The results demonstrated larger native space volumes in men then women (mean (± SD) total cerebellar volume in women = 217 cm³ (± 26), men = 259 cm³ (± 29); P < 0.001). Significant gender‐by‐hemisphere interaction was only found in stereotaxic space volumes for white matter core (men > women) and anterior lobe volume (women > men). This new method shows great potential for the precise and efficient analysis of the cerebellum in large patient cohorts. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5026–5039, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .     

Functional lateralization of the anterior insula during feedback processing

Effective adaptive behavior rests on an appropriate understanding of how much responsibility we have over outcomes in the environment. This attribution of agency to ourselves or to an external event influences our behavioral and affective response to the outcomes. Despite its special importance to understanding human motivation and affect, the neural mechanisms involved in self‐attributed rewards and punishments remain unclear. Previous evidence implicates the anterior insula (AI) in evaluating the consequences of our own actions. However, it is unclear if the AI has a general role in feedback evaluation (positive and negative) or plays a specific role during error processing. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a motion prediction task, we investigate neural responses to self‐ and externally attributed monetary gains and losses. We found that attribution effects vary according to the valence of feedback: significant valence × attribution interactions in the right AI, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the midbrain, and the right ventral putamen. Self‐attributed losses were associated with increased activity in the midbrain, the ACC and the right AI, and negative BOLD response in the ventral putamen. However, higher BOLD activity to self‐attributed feedback (losses and gains) was observed in the left AI, the thalamus, and the cerebellar vermis. These results suggest a functional lateralization of the AI. The right AI, together with the midbrain and the ACC, is mainly involved in processing the salience of the outcome, whereas the left is part of a cerebello‐thalamic‐cortical pathway involved in cognitive control processes important for subsequent behavioral adaptations. Hum Brain Mapp 35:4428–4439, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Effect of gender on processing threat‐related stimuli in patients with panic disorder: sex does matter

Background: Several studies have shown that female and male subjects process emotions differently. As women appear to be especially sensitive and responsive to negative and threatening stimuli, gender‐specific emotional processing might be an important factor contributing to the increased likelihood of women compared to men to develop anxiety disorders, e.g. panic disorder (PD). Methods: In this study, gender‐specific neural activation during facial emotion processing was investigated in 20 PD patients (12 women, 8 men) by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results: Overall, significantly stronger activation, encompassing the amygdala, prefrontal, temporal, and occipital cortical areas, basal ganglia, and thalamus, was observed in women than in men during the processing of angry, fearful, or neutral but not happy facial expressions. Additionally, functional connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortical areas and thalamus during the processing of angry facial expressions was significantly stronger in women than in men. Conclusions: These results emphasize gender as an important variable in neural activation patterns of emotional processing and may help to further elucidate the biological substrate of gender‐specific susceptibility for PD. Depression and Anxiety, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

OXYTOCIN AND ADDICTION: A REVIEW

Neuropeptides affect adaptive central nervous system processes related to opiate ethanol and cocaine addiction. Oxytocin (OXT), a neurohypophyseal neuropeptide synthesized in the brain and released at the posterior pituitary, also is released in the central nervous system (CNS). OXT acts within the CNS and has been shown to inhibit the development of tolerance to morphine, and to attenuate various symptoms of morphine withdrawal in mice. In rats, intravenous self-administration of heroin was potently decreased by OXT treatment. In relation to cocaine abuse, OXT dose-dependently decreased cocaine-induced hyperlocomotion and stereotyped grooming behavior. Following chronic cocaine treatment, the behavioral tolerance to the sniffing-inducing effect of cocaine was markedly inhibited by OXT. Behavioral sensitization to cocaine, on the other hand, was facilitated by OXT. OXT receptors in the CNS—mainly those located in limbic and basal forebrain structures—are responsible for mediating various effects of OXT in the opiate- and cocaine-addicted organism. Dopaminergic neurotransmission—primarily in basal forebrain structures—is another important biochemical mediator of the central nervous system effects of OXT. Tolerance to ethanol (e.g. hypothermia-inducing effect of ethanol) also was inhibited by OXT. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.     

Striatal alcohol cue‐reactivity is stronger in male than female problem drinkers

Despite apparent sex differences in the development and treatment of alcohol use disorder, relatively little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms. In this study, we therefore investigated neural cue‐reactivity in a sample of male (n = 28) and female (n = 27) problem drinkers (matched on age and alcohol use severity) with an average alcohol use disorder identification test score of 12 which is indicative of a likely alcohol use disorder. Neural cue‐reactivity data were extracted from four regions of interest: the ventral and dorsal striatum and the ventral and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, with a significance level set at p < 0.05. While the cue‐reactivity paradigm induced similar levels of self‐reported craving in men and women, visual alcohol cues induced significantly stronger striatal activation in men compared to drinkers. While sex differences in ventral striatal cue‐reactivity were partly explained by sex differences in alcohol intake, cannabis use, negative affect and anxiety, this was not the case for sex differences in dorsal striatal cue‐reactivity. These results suggest that alcohol cues are differentially processed by men and women and that the neurobiological mechanisms behind cue‐reactivity differ between the sexes. Consequently, paradigms using alcohol‐related pictures may not be optimal to induce cue‐reactivity in female drinkers and may not be optimal to measure neurobiological markers of alcohol use severity and relapse. Future alcohol cue‐reactivity studies should, in addition to including both men and women, include different types of cues (e.g., stressors and imagery in addition to pictures) to assess sex differences in alcohol cue‐reactivity.     

Functional connectivity mapping of regions associated with self‐ and other‐processing

Neuroscience literature increasingly suggests a conceptual self composed of interacting neural regions, rather than independent local activations, yet such claims have yet to be investigated. We, thus, combined task‐dependent meta‐analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) with task‐independent resting‐state (RS) connectivity analysis to delineate the neural network of the self, across both states. Given psychological evidence implicating the self's interdependence on social information, we also delineated the neural network underlying conceptual other‐processing. To elucidate the relation between the self‐/other‐networks and their function, we mined the MACM metadata to generate a cognitive–behavioral profile for an empirically identified region specific to conceptual self, the pregenual anterior cingulate (pACC), and conceptual other, posterior cingulate/precuneus (PCC/PC). Mining of 7,200 published, task‐dependent, neuroimaging studies, using healthy human subjects, yielded 193 studies activating the self‐related seed and were conjoined with RS connectivity analysis to delineate a differentiated self‐network composed of the pACC (seed) and anterior insula, relative to other functional connectivity. Additionally, 106 studies activating the other‐related seed were conjoined with RS connectivity analysis to delineate a differentiated other‐network of PCC/PC (seed) and angular gyrus/temporoparietal junction, relative to self‐functional connectivity. The self‐network seed related to emotional conflict resolution and motivational processing, whereas the other‐network seed related to socially oriented processing and contextual information integration. Notably, our findings revealed shared RS connectivity between ensuing self‐/other‐networks within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and medial orbitofrontal cortex, suggesting self‐updating via integration of self‐relevant social information. We, therefore, present initial neurobiological evidence corroborating the increasing claims of an intricate self‐network, the architecture of which may promote social value processing. Hum Brain Mapp 36:1304–1324, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Gender-specific disruptions in emotion processing in younger adults with depression

Background: One of the principal theories regarding the biological basis of major depressive disorder (MDD) implicates a dysregulation of emotion‐processing circuitry. Gender differences in how emotions are processed and relative experience with emotion processing might help to explain some of the disparities in the prevalence of MDD between women and men. This study sought to explore how gender and depression status relate to emotion processing. Methods: This study employed a 2 (MDD status) × 2 (gender) factorial design to explore differences in classifications of posed facial emotional expressions (N=151). Results: For errors, there was an interaction between gender and depression status. Women with MDD made more errors than did nondepressed women and men with MDD, particularly for fearful and sad stimuli (Ps <.02), which they were likely to misinterpret as angry (Ps <.04). There was also an interaction of diagnosis and gender for response cost for negative stimuli, with significantly greater interference from negative faces present in women with MDD compared to nondepressed women (P=.01). Men with MDD, conversely, performed similarly to control men (P=.61). Conclusions: These results provide novel and intriguing evidence that depression in younger adults (<35 years) differentially disrupts emotion processing in women as compared to men. This interaction could be driven by neurobiological and social learning mechanisms, or interactions between them, and may underlie differences in the prevalence of depression in women and men. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. Published 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

强迫症道德厌恶感及其与症状的关系

目的探讨强迫症(obsessive-compulsive disorder,OCD)患者道德厌恶感特征,及其与患者强迫症状的关系。方法纳入28例OCD患者和30名性别、年龄、受教育年限与患者相匹配的正常对照,以词汇判断任务测试被试对道德厌恶词、核心厌恶词、中性词进行厌恶判断的反应时、正确率及厌恶程度评级,采用耶鲁布朗强迫量表(Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale,Y-BOCS)、帕多瓦量表—华盛顿州立大学修订版(Padua inventory-Washington State University revision,PI-WSUR)评估患者强迫症状。结果 OCD组对核心厌恶词([762.69±128.25)ms vs(.648.69±162.66)ms]和道德厌恶词([798.73±115.26)ms vs(.727.00±106.06)ms]的反应时较对照组长,对核心厌恶词([6.38±1.78)vs(.5.03±1.64)]和道德厌恶词([7.08±1.23)vs(.5.77±1.44)]的厌恶程度亦高于对照组,且差异均有统计学意义(P0.05)。OCD组对两类厌恶词的厌恶程度与Y-BOCS总分及Y-BOCS强迫思维分、强迫行为分、PI-WSUR总分及污染/清洗强迫因子、穿衣/打扮强迫因子、检查强迫因子、伤害他人/自己的强迫想法、伤害他人/自己的强迫冲动得分均呈正相关(P0.05)。多因素线性回归分析示,只有污染/清洗强迫因子分别与核心厌恶词(β=0.61,P0.01)和道德厌恶词(β=0.54,P0.01)厌恶程度有关联。结论 OCD患者道德厌恶感及核心厌恶感均较对照组更强烈。道德厌恶感与强迫症状相关,受影响最大的是污染/强迫清洗症状。     

Anatomical correlates of quality of life: Evidence from voxel‐based morphometry

Quality of life (QOL) has been defined in many ways, and these definitions usually emphasize happiness and satisfaction with life. Health‐related problems are known to cause lower QOL. However, the neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in QOL measured by questionnaire (QOLMQ) in young healthy subjects are unknown. QOL is essential to our well‐being, and investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying QOL in uncompromised subjects is obviously of great scientific and social interest. We used voxel‐based morphometry to investigate the association between regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and QOLMQ across the brain in healthy young adults (age, 21.4 ± 1.8 years) men (n = 88) and women (n = 68) in humans. We found significant negative relationships between QOLMQ and rGMV in a region in the left rostrolateral prefrontal cortex and regions in the dorsal part of the anterior cingulate gyrus and contingent cingulate regions. These findings show that structural variations in regions associated with processing of negative emotions such as fear and anger as well as those associated with evaluation of internally generated information are associated with QOLMQ. These findings suggest that these processes might be related to QOLMQ in healthy young adults. Hum Brain Mapp 35:1834–1846, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Negative biases and risk for depression; integrating self-report and emotion task markers

Background: Negativity biases and their impact on reactivity to negative emotion are implicated in the mechanisms of risk for depression. The aim of this study was to determine whether self‐reported negativity bias is related to objective cognitive measures of emotional reactivity. Methods: A previously established Web self‐report measure of negativity bias was used to assess 1,080 volunteers from the Brain Resource International Database (overseen by the nonprofit BRAINnet Foundation). We identified matched subgroups of “High Risk” (n = 216) and “Low Risk” (n = 216) participants using a psychometric high‐risk method, which classified High Risk as the sample's top 30% of negativity bias scores and Low Risk as the bottom 30%. These subsamples also completed the WebNeuro cognitive tasks for assessing both conscious and nonconscious reactions to facial emotions. Task performance was quantified by accuracy, reaction time, and misidentification errors. Results: The High Risk (high negativity bias) subgroup was distinguished by greater reactivity to negative emotion in both conscious and nonconscious processing. The High Risk profile was reflected in higher accuracy for sadness (nonconsciously) and disgust (consciously), and more frequent misidentification of neutral as anger (consciously). Conclusions: These results are consistent with seminal theories that a systematic cognitive negativity bias produces a hyper‐reactivity to negative emotion, which can impact nonconscious as well as conscious processing. The results provide a step toward objective markers of risk for depression that would help the community act regarding preventative programs. Replication in patient samples is warranted. Depression and Anxiety, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Oxytocin-immunoreactive innervation of identified neurons in the rat dorsal vagal complex

Background Oxytocin (OXT) has been implicated in reproduction and social interactions and in the control of digestion and blood pressure. OXT‐immunoreactive axons occur in the dorsal vagal complex (DVC; nucleus tractus solitarius, NTS, dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, DMV, and area postrema, AP), which contains neurons that regulate autonomic homeostasis. The aim of the present work is to provide a systematic investigation of the OXT‐immunoreactive innervation of dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) neurons involved in the control of gastrointestinal (GI) function. Methods We studied DMV neurons identified by (i) prior injection of retrograde tracers in the stomach, ileum, or cervical vagus or (ii) induction of c‐fos expression by glucoprivation with 2‐deoxyglucose. Another subgroup of DMV neurons was identified electrophysiologically by stimulation of the cervical vagus and then juxtacellularly labeled with biotinamide. We used two‐ or three‐color immunoperoxidase labeling for studies at the light microscopic level. Key Results Close appositions from OXT‐immunoreactive varicosities were found on the cell bodies, dendrites, and axons of DMV neurons that projected to the GI tract and that responded to 2‐deoxyglucose and juxtacellularly labeled DMV neurons. Double staining for OXT and choline acetyltransferase revealed that OXT innervation was heavier in the caudal and lateral DMV than in other regions. OXT‐immunoreactive varicosities also closely apposed a small subset of tyrosine hydroxylase‐immunoreactive NTS and DMV neurons. Conclusions & Inferences Our results provide the first anatomical evidence for direct OXT‐immunoreactive innervation of GI‐related neurons in the DMV.