Oxytocin neurons mediates the effect of social isolation via the VTA circuits

Musardo, Stefano; Contestabile, Alessandro; Mairesse, Jerome; Baud, Olivier; Bellone, Camilla

Social interaction during adolescence strongly influences brain function and behaviour, and the recent pandemic has emphasized the devastating effect of social distancing on mental health. While accumulating evidences have shown the importance of the reward system in encoding specific aspects of social interaction, the consequences of social isolation on the reward system and the development of social skills later in adulthood are still largely unknown. Here, we found that one week of social isolation during adolescence in mice increased social interaction at the expense of social habituation and social novelty preference. Behavioural changes were accompanied by the acute hyperexcitability of dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral segmental area (VTA) and long-lasting expression of GluA2-lacking AMPARs at excitatory inputs onto DA neurons that project to the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Social isolation-dependent behavioural deficits and changes in neural activity and synaptic plasticity were reversed by chemogenetic inhibition of oxytocin neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus. These results demonstrate that social isolation has acute and long-lasting effects on social interaction and suggest that these effects are mediated by homeostatic adaptations within the reward circuit.