In young rats, oxytocin acting in a brain area called CA1 is important for remembering where objects are, especially in males, and blocking its receptors hurts this memory and the brain's ability to strengthen connections. The same blockage also harms social memory in both sexes. In adult rats, the effect flips, with females showing memory loss when oxytocin is blocked. These results show that oxytocin’s role in memory depends on sex and age, but the study is in rats and doesn’t give direct guidance for human use.

Research into memory mechanisms has predominantly centered on adult male rodents, often overlooking the influences of sex and developmental stage. Memory processes vary significantly between juveniles and adults, with sex acting as a critical determinant. Oxytocin (OXT) has emerged as a key modulator of fear responses and extinction in a sex-dependent manner, with prepubertal females displaying OXT-dependent contextual extinction patterns akin to adult males. These differences likely stem from diverse trajectories of hippocampal and prefrontal cortex maturation. This study examines the CA1 region's involvement in object location memory (OLM), social recognition memory (SRM), and synaptic plasticity among juvenile male and female rats, focusing on OXT's role. Results reveal that, in juvenile (postnatal day -PND 27) protein synthesis inhibition or OXT receptor blockade with OXT receptor antagonist (OXTR-Ant) in CA1 impairs OLM and impairs long-term potentiation (LTP) uniquely in males. These findings correlate with a greater increase in CA1 c-Fos expression following OLM in juvenile males compared to females. The SRM impairment was uniform across sexes under these treatments. In adults (PND 69), OXTR-Ant caused OLM impairment solely in females. These findings underscore pronounced sex- and age-specific variations in CA1-dependent memory and synaptic plasticity, shedding light on distinct neurobiological mechanisms that emerge pre-puberty and evolve throughout development.