Oxytocin Modulation of Spinal Circuits Drives Therapeutic Benefits of Massage
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Across social species, social touch enhances well-being and reduces pain - two seemingly distinct benefits that enhance survival. Yet where and how the nervous system integrates these functions, and whether a single mechanism could serve both, remains unknown. Here we show that massage triggers oxytocin release, which shapes both pain and touch reward at the earliest stage of central processing - the spinal cord - through a single, state-dependent circuit mechanism. We report that in humans, massage enhances well-being, effects that correlate with endogenous oxytocin release. In mice, gentle touch activates hypothalamic oxytocin neurons that project directly to the spinal dorsal horn. Genetic manipulation of spinal oxytocin circuits alters behavioral responses to both gentle touch and noxious stimuli. Spinal calcium imaging and slice electrophysiology reveal that oxytocin acts on both excitatory and inhibitory spinal neurons to sculpt the relative activity of spinal ascending systems that convey both social touch and pain to the brain. Extending these findings to humans, we show that oxytocin receptors are also expressed on spinal excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and that endogenous oxytocin during massage correlates with altered spinal touch processing. Thus, spinal oxytocin signaling provides an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for the therapeutic benefits of massage.
Authors: Manon Bohic, Paula Celeste Salamone, Wanhong Zuo, Ahmed Negm, Sasha Leilani Fulton, Shibin Du, Swathi Jayakumar, Jessica Keating, Vanessa Soubeyre, Mark Andrew Gradwell, Aman Upadhyay, Lucero Shorter, Joel Kim, Yukiko Ueno Inoue, Takayoshi Inoue, Brett Mensch, Jiang-Hong Ye, Cedric Peirs, Gaetan Poulen, Nicolas Lonjon, Florence Vachiery-Lahaye, Luc Bauchet, Emmanuel Bourinet, Hakan Olausson, Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, Yuan-Xiang Tao, Rebecca Boehme, Victoria E. Abraira
Institutions: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Linköping University, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Inserm, Université Clermont Auvergne, Université de Montpellier, Physiopathologie et pharmacologie de la douleur et de la migraine, Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Columbia University, Oregon Health & Science University, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montpellier, Hôpital Gui de Chauliac
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1633369057, Touching on locomotion: an anatomical and functional analysis of spinal cord circuits that shape the way we move, Unrevealing the neuronal circuits underlying chronic pain, NeuronS_MATTR Network: Neuronal & Systems Mechanisms of Affective Touch & Therapeutic Tissue Manipulation Research Network, Neuroscience of Aging, Neurodegeneration and Alzheimer's Disease, Refining Oxytocin Therapy for Pain: Context is Key, The Role of Distinct Dorsal Column Nuclei Outputs in Persistent Pain
OpenAlex ID: W7123355065