<Li> Cardiac effects: Oxytocin and oxytocin receptors are also found in the heart in some rodents, and the hormone may play a role in the embryonal development of the heart by promoting cardiomyocyte differentiation . However, the absence of either oxytocin or its receptor in knockout mice has not been reported to produce cardiac insufficiencies . </Li> <Li> Modulation of hypothalamic - pituitary - adrenal axis activity: Oxytocin, under certain circumstances, indirectly inhibits release of adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol and, in those situations, may be considered an antagonist of vasopressin . </Li> <Li> Preparing fetal neurons for delivery: Crossing the placenta, maternal oxytocin reaches the fetal brain and induces a switch in the action of neurotransmitter GABA from excitatory to inhibitory on fetal cortical neurons . This silences the fetal brain for the period of delivery and reduces its vulnerability to hypoxic damage . </Li> <Li> Feeding: A 2012 paper suggested that oxytocin neurons in the para-ventricular hypothalamus in the brain may play a key role in suppressing appetite under normal conditions and that other hypothalamic neurons may trigger eating via inhibition of these oxytocin neurons . This population of oxytocin neurons are absent in Prader - Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder that leads to uncontrollable feeding and obesity, and may play a key role in its pathophysiology . </Li>

The hormonal increase of oxytocin and estrogen during the stress response