Intranasal oxytocin increases social grooming and food sharing in the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus

Gerald G. Carter, Gerald S. Wilkinson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

62 Scopus citations

Abstract

Intranasal oxytocin (OT) delivery has been used to non-invasively manipulate mammalian cooperative behavior. Such manipulations can potentially provide insight into both shared and species-specific mechanisms underlying cooperation. Vampire bats are remarkable for their high rates of allogrooming and the presence of regurgitated food sharing among adults. We administered intranasal OT to highly familiar captive vampire bats of varying relatedness to test for an effect on allogrooming and food sharing. We found that intranasal OT did not have a detectable effect on food-sharing occurrence, but it did increase the size of regurgitated food donations when controlling for dyad and amount of allogrooming. Intranasal OT in females increased the amount of allogrooming per partner and across all partners per trial, but not the number of partners. We also found that the peak effect of OT treatments occurred 30-50. min after administration, which is consistent with the reported latency for intranasal OT to affect relevant brain areas in rats and mice. Our results suggest that intranasal OT is a potential tool for influencing dyadic cooperative investments, but measuring prior social relationships may be necessary to interpret the results of hormonal manipulations of cooperative behavior and it may be difficult to alter partner choice in vampire bats using intranasal OT alone.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)150-153
Number of pages4
JournalHormones and Behavior
Volume75
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2015
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Endocrinology
  • Endocrine and Autonomic Systems
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

Keywords

  • Allogrooming
  • Desmodus rotundus
  • Food sharing
  • Inhaled oxytocin
  • Intranasal oxytocin
  • Vampire bat

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