Early life adversity shapes neural and behavioural responses to oxytocin during altruistic decision-making.
Overview
- Department of Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg,Oldenburg, Germany
- Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery, University of Bonn,Bonn, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Correctional Facility Plötzensee, Berlin, Germany
- Division of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Bonn,Bonn, Germany
- Department of MR Physics, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases,Bonn, Germany
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bonn,Bonn, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, 3700 O St NW,Washington, DC USA
- Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University, 3700 O St NW,Washington, DC USA
- Center for Economics and Neuroscience, University of Bonn,Bonn, Germany
- Institute of Experimental Epileptology and Cognition Research, Medical Faculty, University of Bonn,Bonn, Germany
- Research Center Neurosensory Science, University of Oldenburg,Oldenburg, Germany
Abstract
What makes some people willing to help strangers at a personal cost, while others are more hesitant or selective? Early life adversity - such as neglect or abuse - may shape how we respond to strangers in need later in life, yet the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. In this study we tested whether the neuropeptide oxytocin, a key modulator for a rich repertoire of social behaviours, influences altruistic decisions in adults with different childhood experiences. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a validated altruistic donation task, the study showed that oxytocin increased donations among individuals with greater childhood adversity, while reducing them in those with lower adversity. These behavioural effects were mirrored by changes in functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and middle cingulate cortex - core circuits involved in social evaluation and empathy. Our findings suggest that early life experiences sensitize neural pathways for social processing, and that oxytocin dynamically modulates these circuits to influence altruistic behaviour in adulthood.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Code
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The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.
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Data
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Data availability
All data and codes supporting the findings of this study are available upon request. Due to the large size of the 7-Tesla fMRI data, full raw data are not hosted in a public repository but can be made available to researchers under a data-sharing agreement for the purpose of replicating or extending the analyses. All data are available in the main text. Code used for the analyses is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Versions
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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 10 authors, 2 keywords, 14 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 65 references.
Cite
This paper
Marsh, N., Jeske, V., Babasiz, M., Herscheid, A., Kreuder, A.-K., Stirnberg, R., Stoecker, T., Marsh, A. A., Schultz, J., & Hurlemann, R. (2026). Early life adversity shapes neural and behavioural responses to oxytocin during altruistic decision-making. Translational psychiatry, 16(1), 381. https://
BibTeX
@article{marsh2026early,
author = {Marsh, Nina and Jeske, Vanessa and Babasiz, Mari and Herscheid, Angela and Kreuder, Ann-Kathrin and Stirnberg, Rüdiger and Stoecker, Tony and Marsh, Abigail A. and Schultz, Johannes and Hurlemann, René},
title = {{Early life adversity shapes neural and behavioural responses to oxytocin during altruistic decision-making}},
journal = {Translational psychiatry},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
volume = {16},
number = {1},
pages = {381},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
issn = {2158-3188},
doi = {10.1038/
url = {https://
pmid = {42509230},
pmcid = {PMC13408452}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Marsh, Nina
AU - Jeske, Vanessa
AU - Babasiz, Mari
AU - Herscheid, Angela
AU - Kreuder, Ann-Kathrin
AU - Stirnberg, Rüdiger
AU - Stoecker, Tony
AU - Marsh, Abigail A.
AU - Schultz, Johannes
AU - Hurlemann, René
TI - Early life adversity shapes neural and behavioural responses to oxytocin during altruistic decision-making
T2 - Translational psychiatry
J2 - Transl Psychiatry
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 16
IS - 1
SP - 381
SN - 2158-3188
PB - Nature Publishing Group
DO - 10.1038/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
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"container-title": "Translational psychiatry",
"author": [
{
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"language": "en",
"issued": {
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}
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