Social reward

Recent articles

Two prairie voles.

Oxytocin prompts prairie voles to oust outsiders, fortifying their friendships

The “love hormone” drives the neurobiology behind platonic bonds in animals usually studied for their romantic attachments.

By Holly Barker
8 August 2025 | 8 min listen
Position heatmaps of mice performing a behavioral assay.

New test taps nose pokes as a proxy for social motivation in mice

Over one hour, a particularly motivated mouse poked its nose 350 times into a hole in the test chamber in the hopes of meeting a playmate.

By Holly Barker
10 August 2023 | 5 min read
A photograph of a mouse against a swirly, multi-colored backdrop

Psychedelics give mice second chance to learn social rewards

The drugs may reopen a critical window during development in which the brain can more easily adjust its connections.

By Holly Barker
23 June 2023 | 4 min read
Illustration shows two octopi interacting on a yellow background.

Getting eight arms around autism

Octopuses can solve some of the same problems as people but do so in unusual ways.

By Sarah DeWeerdt
8 September 2021 | 5 min listen

Drugs boost serotonin, socialization in multiple autism mouse models

The finding that MDMA and an experimental serotonin agonist increase sociability across six different model mice suggests that disparate autism-linked mutations converge on the same underlying pathways.

By Peter Hess
6 August 2021 | 4 min read
Boy in front of colorful constellation or universe, studying the realms of outer space.

The benefits of special interests in autism

Researchers are studying how the intense passions of autistic people shape the brain, improve well-being and enhance learning.

By Emily Laber-Warren
12 May 2021 | 18 min read
Brain scan showing communication from amygdala to hypothalamus about social reward.

Brain circuit makes social interactions rewarding, may be altered in autism

Blocking connections between the amygdala and hypothalamus prevents mice from finding social interactions as rewarding as they would otherwise.

By Angie Voyles Askham
30 April 2021 | 4 min read
dopamine neurons in mice show up green in an area of the brain associated with social reward.

Dopamine neurons may dampen social behavior in mouse model of autism

Mice missing a copy of the autism-linked gene PTEN show a reduced preference for social interaction, possibly due to atypically large, overconnected dopamine neurons. Easing the overconnection may alleviate this trait.

By Peter Hess
12 January 2021 | 4 min read
Oxytocin neurons stained pink and green.

Autism-linked gene exerts varied effects on oxytocin circuits in mice

Two types of neurons process social information, a new mouse study suggests, but only one is disrupted in mice missing the autism-linked gene FMR1.

By Peter Hess
18 December 2020 | 4 min read
Toddler vocalizing with parent.

Social motivation predicts language skills in autistic children

The more children with autism tune in to and communicate with others as toddlers, the stronger their conversation skills are later in childhood.

By Angie Voyles Askham
8 October 2020 | 4 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

A red pencil sits on top of a stack of white papers.

Contested paper on vaccines, autism in rats retracted by journal

The editor-in-chief cited “inconsistencies in the number of subjects” as the reason for the retraction.

By Marta Hill
7 August 2025 | 5 min listen

Body state, sensory signals commingle in mouse whisker cortex

The new study challenges a long-held view that the barrel cortex exclusively encodes sensory signals from the whiskers.

By Claudia López Lloreda
6 August 2025 | 6 min listen
Book cover for Bird Brains and Behavior: A Synthesis, showing several bird species.

‘Bird Brains and Behavior,’ an excerpt

In their new book, published today, Georg Striedter and Andrew Iwaniuk dive deep into the latest research on the neural mechanisms of avian behavior. This excerpt from Chapter 2 explores how birds sleep.

By Andrew Iwaniuk, Georg Striedter
5 August 2025 | 9 min read