Many social behaviours are evolutionarily conserved and are essential for the healthy development of an individual. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) is crucial for the fine-tuned regulation of social interactions in mammals. The advent and application of state-of-the-art methodological approaches that allow the activity of neuronal circuits involving OXT to be monitored and functionally manipulated in laboratory mammals have deepened our understanding of the roles of OXT in these behaviours. In this Review, we discuss how OXT promotes the sensory detection and evaluation of social cues, the subsequent approach and display of social behaviour, and the rewarding consequences of social interactions in selected reproductive and non-reproductive social behaviours. Social stressors — such as social isolation, exposure to social defeat or social trauma, and partner loss — are often paralleled by maladaptations of the OXT system, and restoring OXT system functioning can reinstate socio-emotional allostasis. Thus, the OXT system acts as a dynamic mediator of appropriate behavioural adaptations to environmental challenges by enhancing and reinforcing social salience and buffering social stress.

许多社会行为在进化上是保守的，对于个体的健康发展至关重要。神经肽催产素（OXT）对于哺乳动物社交互动的微调至关重要。最先进方法的出现和应用使实验室哺乳动物中涉及 OXT 的神经元回路的活动得到监测和功能操作，加深了我们对 OXT 在这些行为中的作用的理解。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了 OXT 如何促进社会线索的感官检测和评估、社会行为的后续方法和展示，以及社会互动在选定的生殖和非生殖社会行为中的奖励后果。社会压力源——例如社会孤立、遭受社会失败或社会创伤以及失去伴侣——通常与 OXT 系统的适应不良同时发生，恢复 OXT 系统的功能可以恢复社会情绪失衡。因此，OXT 系统通过增强和加强社会显着性并缓冲社会压力，充当对环境挑战进行适当行为适应的动态中介。