Oxytocin's Fingerprint in Personality Traits and Regional Brain Volume
Abstract
Oxytocin has a fundamental role in social behavior. In humans, supporting evidence shows that oxytocin enhances people's ability to trust or affiliate with others. A key question is whether differences in plasma oxytocin concentration in humans are related to people's differences in their social traits of personality and if such differences are reflected in the structural organization of brain areas responsive to the action of this hormone. We examined the correlation between oxytocin plasma levels and personality traits in 30 healthy subjects, tested with the Inventory revised neuroticism-extroversion-openness personality inventory (NEO-PI-R). By using the voxel-based morphometry technique, we also investigated changes in gray matter volume as a function of the plasma oxytocin level and NEO-PI-R scores. A positive correlation was found between plasma oxytocin and extraversion scores, a dimension that captures social affiliative tendencies. Moreover, we found an inverse correlation between plasma oxytocin and the volume of the right amygdala and the right hippocampus, 2 brain areas implicated in fear and anxiety. Finally, we showed that the amygdala-hippocampal complex correlate negatively with extraversion scores. Our findings provide evidence for a neural mechanism linking physiological oxytocin's variability and structural variation of brain regions relevant for emotion regulation to individual differences in affiliative personality traits.
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Despite challenges, there is an increasing body of evidence showing that oxytocin can be used as a biomarker of social functioning.
“However, despite these above challenges, there is an increasing body of evidence showing that OT can be used as a biomarker of social functioning (Andari et al. 2014; Parker et al. 2014).”
From A precision medicine approach to oxytocin trials (2017) · cites this paper as Andari et al. 2014
OT concentration correlates with sociability scores in healthy subjects.
“We also showed that OT concentration correlates with sociability scores in healthy subjects (Andari et al. 2014).”
From A precision medicine approach to oxytocin trials (2017) · cites this paper as Andari et al. 2014
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- Authors
- Andari, E., Schneider, F. C., Mottolese, R., Vindras, P., & Sirigu, A.
- Affiliations
- Lyon 1 Université (FR)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint-Étienne (FR)
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-11-01
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 479-486
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- OpenAlex
- W2157758458
- Cited by
- 63
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 9.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- oxytocin, plasma oxytocin, personality traits, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, amygdala, hippocampus, gray matter volume, emotion regulation, social affiliation, individual differences, brain structure
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Amygdala, Brain, Extraversion, Psychological, Female, Hippocampus, Humans, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Organ Size, Oxytocin, Personality, Personality Tests, Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated, Young Adult
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