Social buffering in rats reduces fear by oxytocin triggering sustained changes in central amygdala neuronal activity

The presence of a companion can reduce fear, but the neural mechanisms underlying this social buffering of fear are incompletely known. We studied social buffering of fear in male and female, and its encoding in the amygdala of male, auditory fear-conditioned rats. Pharmacological, opto,- and/or chemogenetic interventions showed that oxytocin signaling from hypothalamus-to-central amygdala projections underlied fear reduction acutely with a companion and social buffering retention 24 h later without a companion. Single-unit recordings with optetrodes in the central amygdala revealed fear-encoding neurons (showing increased conditioned stimulus-responses after fear conditioning) inhibited by social buffering and blue light-stimulated oxytocinergic hypothalamic projections. Other central amygdala neurons showed baseline activity enhanced by blue light and companion exposure, with increased conditioned stimulus responses that persisted without the companion. Social buffering of fear thus switches the conditioned stimulus from encoding “fear” to “safety” by oxytocin-mediated recruitment of a distinct group of central amygdala “buffer neurons”.