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. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Simons Foundation, https://ror.org/01cmst727 NIH, R01NS119268, R01NS124799, U24AT011970, K99NS133476 Pew Charitable Trusts, https://ror.org/02xhk2825 Whitehall Foundation, https://ror.org/00her7k05 Craig H Neilsen Foundation Rita Allen Foundation, https://ror.org/0515k5w36 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, https://ror.org/052csg198 New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR-18-CE16-1190 0002-01, ANR-19-CE14-0033-01 Labex ICST ANR Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale Neurodon Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, https://ror.org/004hzzk67 NIA, AG055378 JSPS KAKENHI, 20K06467, 23K05612

ESCAN 2026 is the 9th ESCAN Conference, the biennial meeting of the European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

Affective contagion, a core component of empathy, has been widely characterized in social vertebrates but its existence in any invertebrate is unknown. Using a cognitive bias paradigm we demonstrate p...

Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (286516), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Reinforcement learning task-based behavioral and computational measures displayed low test–retest reliability at the individual level. Also in contrast to self-assessed personality measures, behaviora...

Neuropsychopharmacology - The efficacy of elevating anandamide via inhibition of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) combined with internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of...

In der Fakultät für Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft ist zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt die Stelle der*des Laborleiter*in (TV-L E12 bzw. E13) im B...

COVID-19 lockdowns were linked to a surge in unhealthy food–related behaviors, potentially as an attempt to cope with disrupted social homeostasis. Here, we tested bidirectional associations between m...

A number of studies have linked autistic traits to difficulties in learning from social (versus non-social) stimuli. However, these stimuli are often difficult to match on low-level visual properties,...

Internal states like motivation fluctuate substantially over time. However, studies of the neurocomputational mechanims of motivated behavior have ...

Neuropsychopharmacology - Endocannabinoid contributions to the perception of socially relevant, affective touch in humans