德国海德堡大学Valery Grinevich和法国斯特拉斯堡大学Alexandre Charlet小组合作取得一项新成果。他们发现社交接触通过激活细小细胞催产素（OT）神经元促进女性间的交流。该项研究成果发表在2020年7月27日出版的《自然-神经科学》上。

在本研究中，研究人员发现体感刺激优先激活了较小的OT神经元，即不投射到垂体但通过突触接触到巨细胞神经元上的细小细胞神经元。这种激活被传递到数量较多的巨细胞神经元群体，因此，在雌性大鼠之间的社交互动过程中，它们的活动显示出协调一致的增加。选择性激活这些细小细胞神经元可促进社交活动，而抑制它们可减少社交互动。因此，细小细胞OT神经元通过协调更多数量OT细胞神经元的响应来接受特定输入，以调控社交行为。

据了解，OT是社交生活的重要催化剂，尽管它对与社交相关脑区的影响已得到广泛研究，但在实际的社交互动过程中，OT神经元的活性仍鲜有探究。多数OT神经元是巨细胞神经元，它们同时投射到参与社交行为的垂体和前脑区域。

附：英文原文

Title: Social touch promotes interfemale communication via activation of parvocellular oxytocin neurons

Author: Yan Tang, Diego Benusiglio, Arthur Lefevre, Louis Hilfiger, Ferdinand Althammer, Anna Bludau, Daisuke Hagiwara, Angel Baudon, Pascal Darbon, Jonas Schimmer, Matthew K. Kirchner, Ranjan K. Roy, Shiyi Wang, Marina Eliava, Shlomo Wagner, Martina Oberhuber, Karl K. Conzelmann, Martin Schwarz, Javier E. Stern, Gareth Leng, Inga D. Neumann, Alexandre Charlet, Valery Grinevich

Issue&Volume: 2020-07-27

Abstract: Oxytocin (OT) is a great facilitator of social life but, although its effects on socially relevant brain regions have been extensively studied, OT neuron activity during actual social interactions remains unexplored. Most OT neurons are magnocellular neurons, which simultaneously project to the pituitary and forebrain regions involved in social behaviors. In the present study, we show that a much smaller population of OT neurons, parvocellular neurons that do not project to the pituitary but synapse onto magnocellular neurons, is preferentially activated by somatosensory stimuli. This activation is transmitted to the larger population of magnocellular neurons, which consequently show coordinated increases in their activity during social interactions between virgin female rats. Selectively activating these parvocellular neurons promotes social motivation, whereas inhibiting them reduces social interactions. Thus, parvocellular OT neurons receive particular inputs to control social behavior by coordinating the responses of the much larger population of magnocellular OT neurons. Charlet, Grinevich et al. show that social touch between female rats activates parvocellular oxytocin neurons; these neurons control social behavior by coordinating the responses of the much larger population of magnocellular oxytocin neurons.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0674-y

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-0674-y