At a glance
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Computational Modeling of Oxytocin in the Regulation of Trust
In Brief
A Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating Syntocinon Nasal Spray, 40IU and Syntocinon Placebo Formulation, 40IU for Brain Dynamics in Healthy Adults. Completed, enrolled 51 participants across 3 sites.
Detailed Summary
Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that is well known for its role in social and affiliative behavior in humans. Oxytocin receptors are significantly lowered in autistic individuals and administration of oxytocin has shown benefits in enhancing social recognition and behavior in autistic children. However, more recent research has refined the behavioral effects of oxytocin, moving away from the notion that the neuropeptide blindly induces love and trust, towards the view that it actually increases social perception in assessing friend vs. foe: supporting cohesion with 'insiders' and distrust and aggression for 'outsiders.' Oxytocin is responsible for the selective aggression shown by lactating female mammals protecting their young, an effect demonstrated also in humans, and has been shown to strengthen feelings of ethnocentrism. However, no neuroimaging study to date has investigated this effect, with the consequence that its neurobiological basis is still unknown. The general aim of our study is to determine meso-circuit brain dynamics that underlie oxytocin's amplification of both trust and aggression; and specifically, using neuroimaging (fMRI, magnetoencephalography, and behavioral testing) whether oxytocin amplifies kinship bias by attenuating social reward learning.
Study Details
Timeline
Interventions
Subjects will be scanned twice. Prior to first brain scanning session, they will be randomly assigned to receive either Syntocinon or Placebo. Prior to second scanning session, they will receive what they have not received in the first session; i.e., same subjects will be receiving both Syntocinon and placebo on two different days.
Subjects will be scanned twice. Prior to first brain scanning session, they will be randomly assigned to receive either Syntocinon or Placebo. Prior to second scanning session, they will receive what they have not received in the first session; i.e., same subjects will be receiving both Syntocinon and placebo on two different days.