Modern human lifestyle strongly depends on complex social traits like empathy, tolerance and cooperation. These diverse facets of social cognition have been associated with variation in the oxytocin receptor and its sister genes, the vasotocin/vasopressin receptors. Here, we compared the available genomic sequences of these receptors between modern humans, archaic humans, and 12 non-human primate species, and identified sites that show heterozygous variation in modern humans and archaic humans distinct from variation in other primates, and for which we could find association studies with clinical implications. 

Our findings have implications for understanding hominid prosociality, as well as the similarities between modern human and bonobo social behavior.

Reference: Oxytocin and vasotocin receptor variation and the evolution of human prosociality. Constantina Theofanopouloua, Alejandro Andirkóbc, Cedric Boeckx, Erich D.Jarvisae. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology. Volume 11, August 2022, 100139