Although positive effects of oxytocin (OT) on social functioning are well-demonstrated, little is known about the mechanisms through which OT may drive early social development, or its therapeutic efficacy in infancy. To address these critical issues, we investigated the effects of exogenous OT on neural (EEG) and behavioral responses during observation of live facial gestures in infant macaques with limited social exposure (i.e. nursery-reared). Three key findings were revealed. First, OT increased alpha suppression over posterior scalp regions during observation of facial gestures but not non-biological movement, suggesting that OT targets self-other matching and attentional cortical networks involved in social perception from very early infancy. Second, OT increased infant production of matching facial gestures and attention towards the most socially-relevant facial stimuli, both behaviors typically silenced by early social deprivation. Third, infants with higher cortisol levels appeared to benefit the most from OT, displaying greater improvements in prosocial behaviors after OT administration. Altogether, these findings suggest that OT promotes prosocial behaviors and associated neural responses likely impacted by early social adversity, and demonstrate the potential of OT administration to ameliorate social difficulties in the context of neurodevelopmental and early-emerging psychiatric disorders, at a developmental stage when brain plasticity is greatest.

尽管催产素 (OT) 对社会功能的积极影响已得到充分证明，但人们对 OT 推动早期社会发展的机制或其在婴儿期的治疗效果知之甚少。为了解决这些关键问题，我们研究了外源性 OT 对社会接触有限（即托儿所饲养）的婴儿猕猴的实时面部手势观察期间神经 (EEG) 和行为反应的影响。揭示了三个关键发现。首先，在观察面部手势时，OT 增加了对后头皮区域的 α 抑制，而不是非生物运动，这表明 OT 的目标是自婴儿早期参与社会感知的自我-其他匹配和注意皮层网络。第二，OT 增加了婴儿对最与社会相关的面部刺激的匹配面部手势和注意力的产生，这两种行为通常会因早期社会剥夺而沉默。第三，皮质醇水平较高的婴儿似乎从 OT 中获益最多，在 OT 给药后亲社会行为的改善更大。总之，这些发现表明 OT 促进了可能受早期社会逆境影响的亲社会行为和相关的神经反应，并证明了 OT 管理在神经发育和早期出现的精神疾病的背景下改善社会困难的潜力可塑性最大。皮质醇水平较高的婴儿似乎从 OT 中获益最多，在 OT 给药后表现出更大的亲社会行为改善。总之，这些发现表明 OT 促进了可能受早期社会逆境影响的亲社会行为和相关的神经反应，并证明了 OT 管理在神经发育和早期出现的精神疾病的背景下改善社会困难的潜力可塑性最大。皮质醇水平较高的婴儿似乎从 OT 中获益最多，在 OT 给药后表现出更大的亲社会行为改善。总之，这些发现表明 OT 促进了可能受早期社会逆境影响的亲社会行为和相关的神经反应，并证明了 OT 管理在神经发育和早期出现的精神疾病的背景下改善社会困难的潜力可塑性最大。