Oxytocin receptor signaling in the hippocampus: Role in regulating neuronal excitability, network oscillatory activity, synaptic plasticity and social memory

HighlightsHippocampal oxytocin receptor signaling regulates neuronal excitability.Hippocampal oxytocin receptor signaling regulates network oscillatory activity.Hippocampal oxytocin receptor signaling regulates synaptic plasticity.Hippocampal oxytocin receptor signaling regulates social memory. ABSTRACT Beyond its well‐known role in reproduction, the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been implicated in a broad spectrum of social and nonsocial behaviors. The biological actions of OXT are exerted through specific OXT receptors (OXTR) that belong to the family of G protein‐coupled receptors. OXTR is abundantly expressed in the hippocampus, and the past decade has witnessed tremendous progress in our understanding of the physiological significance of hippocampal OXTR signaling. In this review, we mainly focus on recent progress made in identifying the role of hippocampal OXTR signaling in regulating neuronal excitability, network oscillatory activity, synaptic plasticity and social recognition memory. We also discuss recent insights into the cellular mechanisms underlying these processes regulated by OXTR signaling. Finally, we discuss the remaining questions for future research. A full understanding of the functional role of hippocampal OXTR signaling may lead to targeted new therapies for social cognition deficits, often observed in patients with autism and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Progress in neurobiology

• Publication date

  2018-12-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2018.10.003PMID 30359747
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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