Empathy, perspective taking and how the brain handles other minds.
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Qurʾān
القرآن6 shownVerses named for this subject by hand come first. The rest are found by the subject’s own Arabic and English senses and are shown as lexical matches, not as anchors anyone has confirmed.
Qur'ān 49:12Arabic sense: الظن, تجسسوا
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱجۡتَنِبُواْ كَثِيرࣰ ا مِّنَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِنَّ بَعۡضَ ٱلظَّنِّ إِثۡمࣱۖ وَلَا تَجَسَّسُواْ وَلَا يَغۡتَب بَّعۡضُكُم بَعۡضًاۚ أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمۡ أَن يَأۡكُلَ لَحۡمَ أَخِيهِ مَيۡتࣰ ا فَكَرِهۡتُمُوهُۚ وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ تَوَّابࣱ رَّحِيمࣱ
Believers, avoid making too many assumptions- some assumptions are sinful- and do not spy on one another or speak ill of people behind their backs: would any of you like to eat the flesh of your dead brother? No, you would hate it. So be mindful of God: God is ever relenting, most merciful
Qur'ān 2:235Arabic sense: يعلم ما في انفسكم
وَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ فِيمَا عَرَّضۡتُم بِهِۦ مِنۡ خِطۡبَةِ ٱلنِّسَآءِ أَوۡ أَكۡنَنتُمۡ فِيٓ أَنفُسِكُمۡۚ عَلِمَ ٱللَّهُ أَنَّكُمۡ سَتَذۡكُرُونَهُنَّ وَلَٰكِن لَّا تُوَاعِدُوهُنَّ سِرًّا إِلَّآ أَن تَقُولُواْ قَوۡلࣰ ا مَّعۡرُوفࣰ اۚ وَلَا تَعۡزِمُواْ عُقۡدَةَ ٱلنِّكَاحِ حَتَّىٰ يَبۡلُغَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبُ أَجَلَهُۥۚ وَٱعۡلَمُوٓاْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَعۡلَمُ مَا فِيٓ أَنفُسِكُمۡ فَٱحۡذَرُوهُۚ وَٱعۡلَمُوٓاْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمࣱ
You will not be blamed whether you give a hint that you wish to marry these women, or keep it to yourselves- God knows that you intend to propose to them. Do not make a secret arrangement with them; speak to them honourably and do not confirm the marriage tie until the prescribed period reaches its end. Remember that God knows what is in your souls, so be mindful of Him. Remember that God is most forgiving and forbearing
Qur'ān 3:119Arabic sense: بذات الصدور
هَٰٓأَنتُمۡ أُوْلَآءِ تُحِبُّونَهُمۡ وَلَا يُحِبُّونَكُمۡ وَتُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱلۡكِتَٰبِ كُلِّهِۦ وَإِذَا لَقُوكُمۡ قَالُوٓاْ ءَامَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوۡاْ عَضُّواْ عَلَيۡكُمُ ٱلۡأَنَامِلَ مِنَ ٱلۡغَيۡظِۚ قُلۡ مُوتُواْ بِغَيۡظِكُمۡۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمُۢ بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُورِ
This is how it is: here you are, you love them, but they do not love you; you believe in all the Scriptures and when they meet you, they say, ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone, they bite their fingertips in rage at you. [Prophet], say, ‘Die of rage [if you wish]!’ God knows exactly what is in everyone’s hearts
Qur'ān 3:154Arabic sense: بذات الصدور
ثُمَّ أَنزَلَ عَلَيۡكُم مِّنۢ بَعۡدِ ٱلۡغَمِّ أَمَنَةࣰ نُّعَاسࣰ ا يَغۡشَىٰ طَآئِفَةࣰ مِّنكُمۡۖ وَطَآئِفَةࣱ قَدۡ أَهَمَّتۡهُمۡ أَنفُسُهُمۡ يَظُنُّونَ بِٱللَّهِ غَيۡرَ ٱلۡحَقِّ ظَنَّ ٱلۡجَٰهِلِيَّةِۖ يَقُولُونَ هَل لَّنَا مِنَ ٱلۡأَمۡرِ مِن شَيۡءࣲۗ قُلۡ إِنَّ ٱلۡأَمۡرَ كُلَّهُۥ لِلَّهِۗ يُخۡفُونَ فِيٓ أَنفُسِهِم مَّا لَا يُبۡدُونَ لَكَۖ يَقُولُونَ لَوۡ كَانَ لَنَا مِنَ ٱلۡأَمۡرِ شَيۡءࣱ مَّا قُتِلۡنَا هَٰهُنَاۗ قُل لَّوۡ كُنتُمۡ فِي بُيُوتِكُمۡ لَبَرَزَ ٱلَّذِينَ كُتِبَ عَلَيۡهِمُ ٱلۡقَتۡلُ إِلَىٰ مَضَاجِعِهِمۡۖ وَلِيَبۡتَلِيَ ٱللَّهُ مَا فِي صُدُورِكُمۡ وَلِيُمَحِّصَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِكُمۡۚ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمُۢ بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُورِ
After sorrow, He caused calm to descend upon you, a sleep that overtook some of you. Another group, caring only for themselves, entertained false thoughts about God, thoughts more appropriate to pagan ignorance, and said, ‘Do we get a say in any of this?’ [Prophet], tell them, ‘Everything to do with this affair is in God’s hands.’ They conceal in their hearts things they will not reveal to you. They say, ‘If we had had our say in this, none of us would have been killed here.’ Tell them, ‘Even if you had resolved to stay at home, those who were destined to be killed would still have gone out to meet their deaths.’ God did this in order to test everything within you and in order to prove what is in your hearts. God knows your innermost thoughts very well
Qur'ān 5:7Arabic sense: بذات الصدور
وَٱذۡكُرُواْ نِعۡمَةَ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَمِيثَٰقَهُ ٱلَّذِي وَاثَقَكُم بِهِۦٓ إِذۡ قُلۡتُمۡ سَمِعۡنَا وَأَطَعۡنَاۖ وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمُۢ بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُورِ
Remember God’s blessing on you and the pledge with which you were bound when you said, ‘We hear and we obey.’ Be mindful of God: God has full knowledge of the secrets of the heart
Qur'ān 8:43Arabic sense: بذات الصدور
إِذۡ يُرِيكَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ فِي مَنَامِكَ قَلِيلࣰ اۖ وَلَوۡ أَرَىٰكَهُمۡ كَثِيرࣰ ا لَّفَشِلۡتُمۡ وَلَتَنَٰزَعۡتُمۡ فِي ٱلۡأَمۡرِ وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَلَّمَۚ إِنَّهُۥ عَلِيمُۢ بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُورِ
[Prophet], remember when God made you see them in your sleep as few: if He had shown them to you [believers] as many, you would certainly have lost heart and argued about it, but God saved you. He knows the secrets of the heart
Research library, full list
1701 to 1725 of 2,381Through the eyes of a child: Sibling perspectives on having a sibling diagnosed with autism.
Background: Sibling perspectives on the experiences of families caring for an autistic child are often overlooked in autism research. While qualitative research on these lived experiences has grown, it continues to primarily focus on parent reports.
Aims: This study explored how having a sibling with autism impacts the non-autistic siblings within a family systems framework. The goal of the current study was to expand the literature by exploring the impacts of autism on the sibling subsystem as reported by the parents and the non-autistic siblings themselves.
Methods and procedures: The researchers interviewed 15 non-autistic siblings (aged 7-17) and 15 parents of children with autism to understand the experience of growing up with a sibling with autism. Content analysis was used to develop the interview protocol and analyze responses. Parent and non-autistic sibling reports of both sibl…
matched on Social Cognition (keyword), Social Behavior (keyword)
Socioeconomic status impacts cognitive and socioemotional processes in healthy ageing.
Socioeconomic status (SES) negatively impacts cognitive and executive functioning in older adults, yet its effects on socioemotional abilities have not been studied in this population. Also, evidence on neurocognitive processes associated with ageing primarily comes from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) populations, hindering the generalization of findings to persons from upper-middle- and low-middle-income countries, such as those of Latin America. Here, we compared the performance of low- and high-SES older adults from Argentina in cognitive state, executive functions, social cognition (emotion recognition and theory of mind), and counter-empathic social emotions (envy and Schadenfreude; displeasure at others' fortune and pleasure at others' misfortune, respectively). Subsequently, we developed a path analysis to test the relationship among those variable…
matched on theory of mind (text), social cognition (text)
Individual differences in envy experienced through perspective-taking involves functional connectivity of the superior frontal gyrus.
Envy is the painful or resentful awareness of another's advantage combined with a desire to possess that same advantage. Recent neuroscientific research has begun to shed light on the brain regions that process the experience of envy, including regions of the prefrontal cortex involved in emotional processing and social cognition. It is still unclear, however, which regions of the brain are functionally connected during the experience of envy. We recorded functional neuroimaging data while inducing simulated envy in participants, experienced through a perspective-taking hypothetical scenario task. In this task, participants took the perspective of a protagonist portrayed in a written description and compared themselves to either i) a self-similar/superior individual, ii) a self-dissimilar/superior individual, or iii) a self-dissimilar/average individual. During each comparison, participa…
matched on perspective taking (text), social cognition (text)
The impact of sleep deprivation on visual perspective taking.
Total sleep deprivation (TSD) is known to alter cognitive processes. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to its impact on social cognition. Here, we investigated whether TSD alters levels-1 and -2 visual perspective-taking abilities, i.e. the capacity to infer (a) what can be seen and (b) how it is seen from another person's visual perspective, respectively. Participants completed levels-1 and -2 visual perspective-taking tasks after a night of sleep and after a night of TSD. In these tasks, participants had to take their own (self trials) or someone else's (other trials) visual perspective in trials where both perspectives were either the same (consistent trials) or different (inconsistent trials). An instruction preceding each trial indicated the perspective to take (i.e. the relevant perspective). Results show that TSD globally deteriorates social performance. In the level-1 t…
matched on perspective taking (text), social cognition (text)
Theory-of-Mind Development and Early Sibling Relationships after the Birth of a Sibling: Parental Discipline Matters.
This study investigated relations among children's Theory-of-Mind (ToM) development, early sibling interactions, and parental discipline strategies during the transition to siblinghood. Using a sample of firstborn children and their parents (N = 208), we assessed children's ToM before the birth of a sibling and 12 months after the birth, and sibling interactions (i.e., positive engagement and antagonism) and parental discipline strategies (i.e., child-centred and parent-centred discipline) at 4 and 8 months in the first year of siblinghood. Structural equation modelling analyses revealed that children's ToM before the birth of the sibling predicted children's positive engagement with the infant sibling, whereas children's antagonistic behaviours towards the infant sibling negatively predicted children's ToM at 12 months, but only when mothers used low levels of child-centred discipline. …
matched on theory of mind (text), social cognition (text)
Ren F, Liu W (2026)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usBehavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) Not All Awe Is Equal: Divergent and Unstable Effects of Positive and Negative Awe on Aggressive Behavior.
Emotions play an important role in shaping aggressive behavior, and understanding their underlying psychological mechanisms is particularly relevant among college students. However, existing research has predominantly focused on reactive aggression, while comparatively less attention has been paid to proactive aggression, which is more instrumental in nature and associated with more severe social consequences. In addition, empirical evidence regarding the valence-specific effects of awe remains limited. The present study aimed to examine the differential effects of positive and negative awe on proactive aggression and to explore the role of empathy as a potential mediating mechanism. A total of 110 college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: positive awe, negative awe, or neutral emotion. Awe was induced through video clips depicting natural landscapes. Proactive …
matched on Empathy (keyword), empathy (text)
Photocaged Oxytocin and Vasopressin Probes to Decipher Neuropeptide Signalling With High Spatiotemporal Resolution.
The oxytocin/vasopressin (OT/VP) neuropeptide signalling system is essential for regulating social behaviour, emotion, learning, and memory, and its dysregulation is associated with multiple neurological disorders. However, accurately studying OT/VP signalling in the brain remains difficult due to widespread receptor expression, long peptide half-lives, and extensive diffusion. To address these challenges, we investigated three classes of photolabile protecting groups-coumarin, nitrophenylpropyl, and borondipyrromethene-to enable precise, light-triggered OT/VP release. These photocages allow controlled activation with one-photon (365-527 nm) or two-photon (730-780 nm) irradiation and do not generate cytotoxic by-products. Using these cages, we synthesised OT/VP photoprobes and characterised their photopharmacological properties at their neuronal receptors (OTR, V1aR, V1bR). The coumarin …
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Reimert I, Franchi GA, Bagaria M, Canario L, Elizabeth Bolhuis J, Düpjan S, Verbeek E, Fàbrega E, Pedersen LJ, Telkänranta H, Eggert A, Moscovice LR (2026)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usAnimal : an international journal of animal bioscience Teaming up for welfare: a cross-institute approach to identify robust indicators of emotion in pigs.
Evaluating emotions in livestock is challenging due to their subjective nature and the lack of robust indicators, especially for positive emotions. We developed experiments across four facilities, all designed to induce positive and negative emotional reactions in n = 124 female domestic pigs tested in a within-subject design. Our goals were to test for robust, non-invasive indicators of short-term emotional responses across pigs representing different ages and breeds and kept in different husbandry conditions. We developed a common ethogram for behavioural recording and standard operating procedures for collecting saliva samples, which were analysed in the same lab to measure short-term changes in cortisol, as an indicator of arousal, and oxytocin, as a putative indicator of valence. We used linear and generalised linear mixed models (LMM/GLMM) to test for effects of predicted differenc…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Nonapeptide modulation of looming-induced responses in male Betta splendens.
The looming stimulus is a widely used paradigm for investigating defensive behaviours in prey-predator contexts, as it simulates an approaching threat through the rapid expansion of a dark disk. Such stimuli typically evoke fight, flight, or freeze responses. In the present study, the role of the nonapeptides oxytocin and vasotocin, both known for their roles in social behaviour and stress regulation, in the behavioural and endocrine response to a looming stimulus in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens was assessed. Fish displayed pronounced freezing behaviour and the expression of conspicuous body stripes in response to a 10-min looming stimulus. Despite the marked behavioural reaction, no concomitant changes in plasma cortisol levels were recorded. The oxytocin receptor antagonist (L-368,899) did not affect the behavioural response, whereas treatment with the vasotocin receptor a…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Oxytocin Neuron-Specific CAPS2 Deficiency in Mice Impairs Hippocampal Plasticity and Long-Term Memory Through Reduced ERK Phosphorylation in the Ventral hippocampus.
Oxytocin (OXT), a neuropeptide produced in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, regulates social behaviour, stress responses, and memory. Our previous studies demonstrated that intracerebroventricular administration of OXT ameliorates amyloid-β-induced cognitive deficits and that selective activation of PVN OXT neurons enhances memory performance. These findings suggest that endogenous OXT secretion is essential for normal memory processing and that its impairment may lead to cognitive dysfunction. To test this hypothesis, we generated oxytocin neuron-specific conditional knockout (cKO) mice for the Ca2+-dependent activator protein for secretion 2 (CAPS2) by crossing Caps2-floxed mice with oxytocin-iCre mice. In these mice, OXT exocytosis was selectively impaired in OXT neurons. Behavioural analyses revealed that Caps2 cKO mice exhibited deficits in long-term memory in …
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Ego Depletion and Deception: The Protective Role of Empathy in Self-Serving and Altruistic Forms of Deception.
Deception is the intentional action of individuals to manipulate others into holding false beliefs, and can take both altruistic and self-serving forms. Drawing on the motivational-attentional shift perspectives, the current research examined how ego depletion influences individuals' propensity to deception and whether empathy moderates this relationship. In Experiment 1, ego depletion was manipulated through the letter "e" task, and deception was assessed using a spot-the-difference paradigm. Results indicated that individuals experiencing high ego depletion engaged in altruistic deception to a significantly lesser extent and exhibited a greater tendency toward self-serving deception than those in the low ego depletion group. Experiment 2 extended this work by inducing empathy through video priming. The findings revealed significant main effects of ego depletion and empathy on the prope…
matched on Empathy (keyword), empathy (text)
Moral elevation and prosocial behavior in college students: the mediating role of gratitude and the moderating role of empathy.
Introduction: With growing attention to moral development in society, the moral cognition and behavior of college students have become important topics of interest. Moral elevation may influence individuals' sense of obligation toward others and is thought to relate to prosocial conduct through affective pathways, including but not limited to gratitude. Grounded in the Social Intuitionist Model and the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis, this study proposes a moderated mediation model to explore the relationship between moral elevation and prosocial behavior, with gratitude as a mediator and empathy as a moderator.
Methods: Using standardized questionnaires, data were collected from 1,261 college students on moral elevation, gratitude, empathy, and prosocial behavior. Among the participants, 54.08% were male (n = 682), and the majority were between 18 and 22 years old (97.46%). This study used …
matched on Empathy (keyword), empathy (text)
An android can show the facial expressions of complex emotions.
Trust and rapport are essential abilities for human-robot interaction. Producing emotional expressions in the robots' faces is an effective way for that purpose. Androids can show human-like facial expressions of basic emotions. However, whether androids can show the facial expression of complex emotions remains unknown. In this experiment, we investigated the android Nikola's ability to produce 22 dynamic facial expressions of complex emotions. For each video, 240 international participants (120 Japanese, 120 German) rated the emotions expressed by Nikola. For 13 complex emotions (i.e., amusement, appal, awe, boredom, contentment, coyness, hatred, hesitation, moral disgust, not face, pain, sleepiness, suspicion), participants of both samples rated the target emotion above the mean of other non-target emotions. Four emotions (bitterness, confusion, pride, relief) were rated above mean by…
matched on Facial Expression (mesh)
Castellani G, Ciampoli M, Benedetti A, Ferretti V, Trigilio G, Barcik W, Busnelli M, Contarini G, Paolini C, Devroye C, Aburto MR, Cucinelli A, Antonelli F, Maltese F, Braccia C, Pacinelli G, Managò F, Rodríguez-Gimeno A, Mazzarella MA, Sannino S, Albanesi E, Nigro M, Bertozzi F, Armirotti A, De Martin S, Chini B, Papaleo F (2025)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usBrain : a journal of neurology2 citations Oxytocin seals the blood-brain barrier, improving 22q11.2 deletion syndrome trajectories.
Understanding the connection between genetic susceptibility and immune alterations in neurodevelopmental disorders remains limited. Here, we investigated the 22q11.2 hemideletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), a prominent genetic risk factor for psychiatric disorders, focusing on its interaction with immune alterations. Using the 22q11.2DS mouse model LgDel/+, we identified adolescence as a critical period for the emergence of behavioural and cortical anomalies, associated with peripheral regulatory T cell reduction, microglial inflammatory activation and cerebral myeloid cell infiltration. Neonatal intranasal oxytocin supplementation prevented the appearance of sensorimotor gating, social behaviour and immune system deficits in 22q11.2DS mice. This was related to an early and long-lasting effect of oxytocin in upregulating tight junction molecules claudin-5 and claudin-1, with claudin-5 leading …
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Ko S, Anzai A, Liu X, Kinouchi K, Yamanoi K, Torimitsu T, Ichihara G, Kitakata H, Shirakawa K, Katsumata Y, Endo J, Hayashi K, Yoshida M, Nishimori K, Tanaka KF, Onaka T, Sano M, Ieda M (2025)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usCirculation research2 citations Social Bonds Retain Oxytocin-Mediated Brain-Liver Axis to Retard Atherosclerosis.
Backgrounds: Social interaction with others is essential to life. Although social isolation and loneliness have been implicated as increased risks of cardiometabolic and cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality, the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which social connection maintains cardiometabolic and cardiovascular health remain largely unresolved.
Methods: To investigate how social connection protects against cardiometabolic and cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis-prone, high-fat diet-fed Apoe-/- mouse siblings were randomly assigned to either individual or grouped housing for 12 weeks. Histological, flow cytometric, biochemical, gene, and protein analyses were performed to assess atherosclerotic lesions, systemic metabolism, inflammation, and stress response. The effects of oxytocin on hepatocytes and subsequent cardiometabolic and cardiovascular function were investig…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
The Role of Oxytocin and Oxytocin Gene Receptor Methylation During Withdrawal Therapy in Males With Alcohol Use Disorder.
Oxytocin is a promising therapeutic target in the treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, many studies report contradicting evidence regarding its effect on drug craving, relapse risk and withdrawal symptoms. Epigenetic regulation of the oxytocin and oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene is altered in several mental disorders and influences social behaviour, often depending on the underlying sex. Evidence suggests that altered promoter methylation could result in oxytocin and OXTR expression differences, thereby possibly influencing drug craving and relapse risk. It is unclear whether promoter methylation changes throughout alcohol withdrawal and is linked to craving and withdrawal symptoms. In this exploratory study, we investigated the effect of 2-week alcohol withdrawal therapy in 99 males on methylation levels (oxytocin and OXTR) compared with 31 healthy controls. We found signific…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Effects of combined postweaning social isolation and ketamine administration on schizophrenia-like behaviour in male Sprague Dawley rats.
The pathophysiology behind negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia is not well understood, thus limiting the effectiveness of treatment on these symptoms. Developing reliable animal model of schizophrenia is vital to advance our understanding on the neurobiological basis of the disorder. Double hit is used to refer to the use of two schizophrenia inducing interventions viz ketamine exposure and social isolation. In this study we aim to investigate the robustness of double hit model of schizophrenia in inducing negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. On postnatal day (PND) 23, thirty-two male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly grouped into four equal groups as follows: group housed + saline (GH), group housed + ketamine (GHK), isolated + saline (SI), and isolated + ketamine (SIK). A single ketamine dose (16 mg/kg) was administered 3 times a week for four weeks. Isolated …
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Emotion specificity, coherence, and cultural variation in conceptualizations of positive emotions: a study of body sensations and emotion recognition.
The present study examines the association between people's interoceptive representation of physical sensations and the recognition of vocal and facial expressions of emotion. We used body maps to study the granularity of the interoceptive conceptualisation of 11 positive emotions (amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, desire, love, joy, interest, pride, relief, and triumph) and a new emotion recognition test (Emotion Expression Understanding Test) to assess the ability to recognise emotions from vocal and facial behaviour. Overall, we found evidence for distinct interoceptive conceptualizations of 11 positive emotions across Asian American, European American, and Latino/a American cultures, as well as the reliable identification of emotion in facial and vocal expressions. Central to new theorising about emotion-related representation, the granularity of physical sensations did not co…
matched on Facial Expression (mesh)
Social isolation induces sexually aggressive behaviour in male Wistar rats.
Background: Sexual violence, a pervasive global issue, significantly impacts individuals and societies, necessitating a deeper understanding of its underlying biological mechanisms. This study aimed to elucidate the role of stress-induced dysregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in sexual aggression in male Wistar rats. Employing a sexual aggression paradigm, we investigated the effects of social isolation on aggression, anxiety-like behaviour, and neurochemistry in virgin adult male Wistar rats.
Results: The results showed that social isolation significantly escalated aggressive behaviours and induced anxiety-like responses in male rats. The sexual aggression test revealed that socially isolated males exhibited heightened aggression towards non-receptive females. Neurochemical analyses indicated significant alterations in key markers, such as corticotrophin-releas…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Ritz NL, Brocka M, Butler MI, Cowan CSM, Barrera-Bugueño C, Turkington CJR, Draper LA, Bastiaanssen TFS, Turpin V, Morales L, Campos D, Gheorghe CE, Ratsika A, Sharma V, Golubeva AV, Aburto MR, Shkoporov AN, Moloney GM, Hill C, Clarke G, Slattery DA, Dinan TG, Cryan JF (2024)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America53 citations Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a crippling psychiatric disorder characterized by intense fear or anxiety in social situations and their avoidance. However, the underlying biology of SAD is unclear and better treatments are needed. Recently, the gut microbiota has emerged as a key regulator of both brain and behaviour, especially those related to social function. Moreover, increasing data supports a role for immune function and oxytocin signalling in social responses. To investigate whether the gut microbiota plays a causal role in modulating behaviours relevant to SAD, we transplanted the microbiota from SAD patients, which was identified by 16S rRNA sequencing to be of a differential composition compared to healthy controls, to mice. Although the mice that received the SAD microbiota had normal behaviours across a battery of tests designed to assess depression and general anxiety-like…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Image-based facial emotion recognition using convolutional neural network on emognition dataset.
Detecting emotions from facial images is difficult because facial expressions can vary significantly. Previous research on using deep learning models to classify emotions from facial images has been carried out on various datasets that contain a limited range of expressions. This study expands the use of deep learning for facial emotion recognition (FER) based on Emognition dataset that includes ten target emotions: amusement, awe, enthusiasm, liking, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and neutral. A series of data preprocessing was carried out to convert video data into images and augment the data. This study proposes Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models built through two approaches, which are transfer learning (fine-tuned) with pre-trained models of Inception-V3 and MobileNet-V2 and building from scratch using the Taguchi method to find robust combination of hyperparameters …
matched on Facial Expression (mesh)
Control of lipolysis by a population of oxytocinergic sympathetic neurons.
Oxytocin (OXT), a nine-amino-acid peptide produced in the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary, has well-known actions in parturition, lactation and social behaviour1, and has become an intriguing therapeutic target for conditions such as autism and schizophrenia2. Exogenous OXT has also been shown to have effects on body weight, lipid levels and glucose homeostasis1,3, suggesting that it may also have therapeutic potential for metabolic disease1,4. It is unclear, however, whether endogenous OXT participates in metabolic homeostasis. Here we show that OXT is a critical regulator of adipose tissue lipolysis in both mice and humans. In addition, OXT serves to facilitate the ability of β-adrenergic agonists to fully promote lipolysis. Most surprisingly, the relevant source of OXT in these metabolic actions is a previously unidentified subpopulation of tyrosine hydroxylase-po…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Behavioural variability, physical activity, rumination time, and milk characteristics of dairy cattle in response to regrouping.
In the commercial dairy industry worldwide, it is common practice to periodically regroup cows as part of their management strategy within housed systems. While this animal husbandry practice is intended to improve management efficiency, cows may experience social stress as a result of the social environment changes, which may have an impact on their behavioural patterns, performance, and welfare. We investigated whether regrouping altered dairy cows' behaviour and impacted their cortisol concentration (a physiological marker of stress), oxytocin, milk yield, and quality in a robotic milking system. Fifty-two lactating cows (17 primiparous; 35 multiparous) were moved in groups of 3-5 individuals into established pens of approximately 100 cows. Behaviour of the regrouped cows was directly observed continuously for 4 h/day across 4-time blocks (day-prior (d-1), day-of regrouping (d0), day-…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
Pro-social and pro-cognitive effects of LIT-001, a novel oxytocin receptor agonist in a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia.
Social and cognitive dysfunctions are the most persistent symptoms of schizophrenia. Since oxytocin (OXT) is known to play a role in social functions and modulates cognitive processes, we investigated the effects of a novel, nonpeptide, selective OXT receptor agonist, LIT-001, in a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia. Administration of methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM; 22 mg/kg) on the 17th day of rat pregnancy is known to cause developmental disturbances of the brain, which lead to schizophrenia-like symptomatology in the offspring. Here, we examined the effects of acutely administered LIT-001 (1, 3, and 10 mg/kg) in MAM-exposed males and females on social behaviour, communication and cognition. We report that MAM-treated adult male and female rats displayed reduced social behaviour, ultrasonic communication and novel object recognition test performance. LIT-001 partially reversed…
matched on Oxytocin (mesh)
The effect of female circumcision on maternal and neonatal outcomes after childbirth: a cohort study.
Background: Circumcision has many side effects and complications on women's lives and affects their physical, mental, and social health. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of female circumcision on maternal and neonatal outcomes.
Methods: Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed with 320 pregnant women by convenience sampling (160 individuals were circumcised and 160 were uncircumcised). Circumcision and its level were confirmed using observation. The data relating to demographic, midwifery history, medical history, maternal and neonatal outcomes were compiled using a questionnaire. All Statistical analyses were conducted by SPSS ver. 16.0. P-values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
Results: The mean age of circumcised women was significantly higher vs. Uncircumcised women (28.92±6.2 vs. 25.42±4.8; P < 0.001). Circumcision was significantly higher in rur…
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