Oxytocin System Promotes Resilience to Early Life Stress on Social Bonding in Female Voles

Early life adversity, such as neonatal isolation, is a significant risk factor for developing social deficits and mental health disorders in adulthood. The oxytocin system is a critical neurochemical pathway known to regulate social behaviors and stress responses across species. This study investigated whether enhancing oxytocin signaling could mitigate the long-term negative impacts of early life social deprivation on adult social attachment in female prairie voles.

Neonatally isolated voles that did not receive oxytocin treatment displayed significantly impaired social attachment, spending only 18% of their time with a familiar partner, a 70% reduction compared to non-isolated controls (p<0.001). > Oxytocin treatment during neonatal isolation significantly restored adult social attachment in female prairie voles, increasing partner preference scores to an average of 68%, which was a 3.8-fold improvement over untreated isolated controls. This level of social bonding was comparable to that observed in non-isolated control voles, who spent 72% of their time with a partner. Furthermore, oxytocin-treated isolated voles showed a 2.1-fold increase in oxytocin receptor density in the nucleus accumbens compared to untreated isolated voles (p<0.01), suggesting a neurobiological mechanism for the observed resilience.