Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis

Moerkerke, Matthijs; Peeters, Mathieu; Vries, Lyssa de; Daniels, Nicky; Steyaert, Jean; Alaerts, Kaat; Boets, Bart

doi:10.3390/brainsci11111545

Cited by 39 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Oxytocin, one of the hormones produced in the hypothalamus, has been implicated in social cognitive processes (Domes et al, 2007;Guastella et al, 2008;Kosfeld et al, 2005;Xu et al, 2019). Endogenous oxytocin levels were found to be lower in children with ASD (Moerkerke et al, 2021), and the oxytocin receptor gene has similarly been associated with ASD in prior research (Campbell et al, 2011;Jacob et al, 2007;Lerer et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2010;Wu et al, 2005;Yrigollen et al, 2008). Moreover, peptides regulating food intake, such as neuropeptide Y, orexin, leptin, and ghrelin, among others, are produced in or act on the hypothalamus (Klockars et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between body mass index and subcortical volume in pre‐adolescent children with autism spectrum disorder: An exploratory study

Hwang

Hong

2022

Autism Research

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Conflicting associations exist between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and subcortical brain volumes. This study assessed whether obesity might have a confounding influence on associations between ASD and brain subcortical volumes. A comprehensive investigation evaluating the relationship between ASD, obesity, and subcortical structure volumes was conducted. Data obtained included body mass index (BMI) and T1‐weighted structural magnetic resonance images for children with and without ASD diagnoses from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange database. Brain subcortical volumes were calculated using vol2Brain software. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed to explore the subcortical volumes similarly or differentially associated with BMI in children with or without ASD and examine association and interaction effects regarding ASD and subcortical volume impact on the Social Responsiveness Scale and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) scores. Bilateral caudate nuclei were smaller in children with ASD than in control participants. Significant interactions were observed between ASD diagnosis and BMI regarding the left caudate, right and left putamen, and right and left ventral diencephalon (DC) volumes (β = −0.384, p = 0.010; β = −0.336, p = 0.030; β = −0.317, p = 0.040; β = 0.322, p = 0.010; β = 0.295, p = 0.021, respectively) and between ASD diagnosis and right and left ventral DC volumes regarding the VABS scores (β = 0.434, p = 0.014; β = 0.495, p = 0.007, respectively). However, each subcortical structure volume included in the ventral DC area could not be measured separately. The results identified subcortical volumes differentially associated with obesity in children with ASD compared with typically developing peers. BMI may need to be considered an important confounder in future research examining brain subcortical volumes within ASD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between body mass index and subcortical volume in pre‐adolescent children with autism spectrum disorder: An exploratory study

Hwang

Hong

2022

Autism Research

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“…The plasma oxytocin level in children with autism was lower than that in healthy children of the same age, and the increase of oxytocin level was not positively correlated with the increase of children's age (Modahl et al, 1998). Also in a meta-analysis shows that lower endogenous oxytocin level is excited in ASD children but not in adolescent or adult (Moerkerke et al, 2021). Anyway, oxytocin is generally considered to be closely related to ASD, especially ASD's social defects (Cai et al, 2018;Zhou et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Oxytocin and serotonin in the modulation of neural function: Neurobiological underpinnings of autism-related behavior

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2022

Front. Neurosci.

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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a group of generalized neurodevelopmental disorders. Its main clinical features are social communication disorder and repetitive stereotyped behavioral interest. The abnormal structure and function of brain network is the basis of social dysfunction and stereotyped performance in patients with autism spectrum disorder. The number of patients diagnosed with ASD has increased year by year, but there is a lack of effective intervention and treatment. Oxytocin has been revealed to effectively improve social cognitive function and significantly improve the social information processing ability, empathy ability and social communication ability of ASD patients. The change of serotonin level also been reported affecting the development of brain and causes ASD-like behavioral abnormalities, such as anxiety, depression like behavior, stereotyped behavior. Present review will focus on the research progress of serotonin and oxytocin in the pathogenesis, brain circuit changes and treatment of autism. Revealing the regulatory effect and neural mechanism of serotonin and oxytocin on patients with ASD is not only conducive to a deeper comprehension of the pathogenesis of ASD, but also has vital clinical significance.

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“…For example, it has been shown that in ASD exogenous OT can modulate face perception, attention toward facial features, and identification abilities of emotional facial expressions [46][47][48][49][50][51]. Although it has been found that the endogenous levels of OT in children are lower than those of TD individuals or adults [52], the influences of exogenous OT are not consistent and depend on the context in which stimuli were presented, individual clinical and psychological parameters, as well as genetic factors such as OT receptor variants or peripheral OT level. Moreover, it is still not clear how OT influences early perceptual stages and whether these possible effects could modulate face perception in ASD.…”

Section: Asd Face Processing and Oscillatory Neural Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin impacts top-down and bottom-up social perception in adolescents with ASD: a MEG study of neural connectivity

2022

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Background In the last decade, accumulative evidence has shown that oxytocin can modulate social perception in typically developed individuals and individuals diagnosed with autism. While several studies show that oxytocin (OT) modulates neural activation in social-related neural regions, the mechanism that underlies OT effects in ASD is not fully known yet. Despite evidence from animal studies on connections between the oxytocinergic system and excitation/inhibition neural balance, the influence of OT on oscillatory responses among individuals with ASD has been rarely examined. To bridge these gaps in knowledge, we investigated the effects of OT on both social and non-social stimuli while focusing on its specific influence on the neural connectivity between three socially related neural regions—the left and right fusiform and the medial frontal cortex. Methods Twenty-five adolescents with ASD participated in a wall-established social task during a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled MEG and OT administration study. Our main task was a social-related task that required the identification of social and non-social-related pictures. We hypothesized that OT would modulate the oscillatory connectivity between three pre-selected regions of interest to be more adaptive to social processing. Specifically, we focused on alpha and gamma bands which are known to play an important role in face processing and top-down/bottom-up balance. Results Compared to placebo, OT reduced the connectivity between the medial frontal cortex and the fusiform in the low gamma more for social stimuli than for non-social ones, a reduction that was correlated with individuals’ performance in the task. Additionally, for both social and non-social stimuli, OT increased the connectivity in the alpha and beta bands. Limitations Sample size was determined based on sample sizes previously reported in MEG in clinical populations, especially OT administration studies in combination with neuroimaging in ASD. We were limited in our capability to recruit for such a study, and as such, the sample size was not based on a priori power analysis. Additionally, we limited our analyses to specific neural bands and regions. To validate the current results, future studies may be needed to explore other parameters using whole-brain approaches in larger samples. Conclusion These results suggest that OT influenced social perception by modifying the communication between frontal and posterior regions, an attenuation that potentially impacts both social and non-social early perception. We also show that OT influences differ between top-down and bottom-up processes, depending on the social context. Overall, by showing that OT influences both social-related perception and overall attention during early processing stages, we add new information to the existing understanding of the impact of OT on neural processing in ASD. Furthermore, by highlighting the influence of OT on early perception, we provide new directions for treatments for difficulties in early attentional phases in this population. Trial registration Registered on October 27, 2021—Retrospectively registered, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT05096676 (details on clinical registration can be found in www.clinicalTrial.gov, unique identifier: NCT05096676).

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Endogenous Oxytocin Levels in Autism—A Meta-Analysis

Cited by 39 publications

References 53 publications

Association between body mass index and subcortical volume in pre‐adolescent children with autism spectrum disorder: An exploratory study

Association between body mass index and subcortical volume in pre‐adolescent children with autism spectrum disorder: An exploratory study

Oxytocin and serotonin in the modulation of neural function: Neurobiological underpinnings of autism-related behavior

Oxytocin impacts top-down and bottom-up social perception in adolescents with ASD: a MEG study of neural connectivity

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