Evolutionary perspectives on the role of oxytocin in human social behavior, social cognition and psychopathology.

Editorial Evolutionary perspectives on the role of oxytocin in human social behavior, social cognition and psychopathology The articles in this Special Edition summarize the latest research on oxytocin (OT), and often arginine vasopressin (AVP), in human parental behavior, other social behaviors, social cognition, social information processing in the brain, as well as developmental disorders and psychopathology. These articles aspire to not only review progress in these areas but to identify the limitations of what have been done and also to articulate high priority directions for future research. The relevance of the emerging evidence for understanding the psychobiology of mental illness is emphasized. To set the stage, here we discuss how OT in the central nervous system (CNS) might have mediated the critical advances in social behavior during the evolution of placental mammals. Selection for avid and sustained maternal behavior was critical for the successful evolution of placental mammals. OT was selected from phylogenetically earlier nonapeptides to enable the unique features of placental mammalian reproduction: birth of neonates after in utero fetal development (parturition); delivery into the mouths of suckling infants of high quality nutrition produced within the mother's body by the larger process of lactation (milk ejection); and activation of maternal nurturing of newborns. In all mammalian species tested to date, OT appears to facilitate the postpartum initiation of maternal behavior (Pedersen, 2013). In sub-primate mammals, this involves, in concert with and dependent upon the reproductive hormone conditions that promote the onset of parturition, OT-initiated motivation to exhibit hard-wired, species-specific sets of offspring-directed care-taking behaviors. To restate this point in a more general way that is a central theme of this Special Issue: with the evolution of placental mammals, OT was selected to activate brain systems promoting maternal behavior , a sustained and prosocial motivational state. Other social attachments and social behaviors that were selected later during mammalian evolution appear to be at least partially based on OT (and AVP) neural systems that first emerged during the evolution of maternal behavior. Supporting this contention are the OT and AVP dependence of pair-bond formation in the monogamous prairie vole and the rapidly accumulating number of reports of OT influences (mostly positive) on human trust, cooperation and social cognition (e.g., see Meyer-Lindenberg et al., 2011). During early placental mammalian evolution, OT was also coopted to produce affective changes vital to the success of maternal behavior, e.g., reduced fear/anxiety (see Febo and (also …