Influence of oxytocin on human memory processes

Ferrier, Barbara M.; Kennett, Deborah J.; Devlin, Margaret

doi:10.1016/0024-3205(80)90499-3

Cited by 88 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Clearly it will be relevant to investigate this using other examples of learning tasks. Our findings, together with those of facilitated social recognition memory, contrast with studies reporting amnestic effects of OT (Ferrier et al, 1980;Fehm-Wolfsdorf et al, 1984;Bruins et al, 1992;Heinrichs et al, 2004), which often involve highly aversive and stressful experimental contexts (de Wied, 1965;Wu and Yu, 2004;Petrovic et al, 2008). Indeed, it seems possible that OT may selectively enhance learning where there is some prosocial component but aid forgetting where the overall learning context is experienced as highly aversive and stressful.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Substantial evidence implicates OT in facilitating human bonding and trust (Kosfeld et al, 2005;Baumgartner et al, 2008), but its potential as a cognitive enhancer or empathogen is still unclear. With learning and memory, OT has been claimed to have both pro-mnestic (Guastella et al, 2008b;Savaskan et al, 2008;Rimmele et al, 2009) and amnestic (Ferrier et al, 1980;Fehm-Wolfsdorf et al, 1984;Bruins et al, 1992;Heinrichs et al, 2004) effects. One hypothesis reconciling these contradictory findings is that OT may specifically promote learning that is socially reinforced.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans

Hurlemann¹,

Patin²,

Onur³

et al. 2010

J. Neurosci.

688

507

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Oxytocin (OT) is becoming increasingly established as a prosocial neuropeptide in humans with therapeutic potential in treatment of social, cognitive, and mood disorders. However, the potential of OT as a general facilitator of human learning and empathy is unclear. The current double-blind experiments on healthy adult male volunteers investigated first whether treatment with intranasal OT enhanced learning performance on a feedback-guided item-category association task where either social (smiling and angry faces) or nonsocial (green and red lights) reinforcers were used, and second whether it increased either cognitive or emotional empathy measured by the Multifaceted Empathy Test. Further experiments investigated whether OT-sensitive behavioral components required a normal functional amygdala. Results in control groups showed that learning performance was improved when social rather than nonsocial reinforcement was used. Intranasal OT potentiated this social reinforcement advantage and greatly increased emotional, but not cognitive, empathy in response to both positive and negative valence stimuli. Interestingly, after OT treatment, emotional empathy responses in men were raised to levels similar to those found in untreated women. Two patients with selective bilateral damage to the amygdala (monozygotic twins with congenital Urbach-Wiethe disease) were impaired on both OT-sensitive aspects of these learning and empathy tasks, but performed normally on nonsocially reinforced learning and cognitive empathy. Overall these findings provide the first demonstration that OT can facilitate amygdala-dependent, socially reinforced learning and emotional empathy in men.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans

Hurlemann¹,

Patin²,

Onur³

et al. 2010

J. Neurosci.

688

507

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A very low dose of OT (.038 IU) had inconsistent effects on memory and mood functions in healthy male volunteers when evaluated 1 hour after treatment by means of attentional and visual analogue scales tests (57). Higher and repeated doses (15 IU three times a day for 50 days) did not affect the learning of a word list but impaired subsequent recall in six healthy subjects, a transient effect that was the opposite to that induced by AVP (58). Similar results were obtained in another study (59) in which the subjects received nasal sprays of OT (40 μg, corresponding to 24 IU) 1, 24, or 48 hours before the acquisition phase of a memory test.…”

Section: Human Studiessupporting

confidence: 73%

Learning About Oxytocin: Pharmacologic and Behavioral Issues

Chini

Leonzino

Braida

et al. 2014

Biological Psychiatry

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Despite the accumulating evidence suggesting that the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) plays a role in neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by social dysfunction, the influence of OT on the nonsocial aspects of learning and memory have been less investigated. To foster research in this area, we review the effects of OT on learning and memory in animal models and humans. In healthy animal models, OT improves memory consolidation and extinction, but only if given at a low dose immediately after the acquisition phase. On the contrary, OT effects in healthy humans have been inconsistent; although, in this case, OT was always given before the acquisition phase and no dose-response curves have ever been drawn up. Interestingly, a specific impairment in the reversal of learning has been found in mice devoid of OT receptors and OT has been demonstrated to enhance fear extinction in rodents. All together, these data suggest that OT plays a role in elementary forms of behavioral flexibility and adaptive responses and support its therapeutic potential in neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by cognitive inflexibility and/or impairment (autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson disease, stroke, posttraumatic stress disorder). Accordingly, OT has been shown to improve cognitive flexibility in OT receptordeficient mice, and scattered findings indicate that intranasal OT has positive effects on the memory of patients with schizophrenia or posttraumatic stress disorders. Further studies of the therapeutic potential of OT as an enhancer of learning and memory are warranted.

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“…Treatment effects of LVP or DDAVP, applied intranasally, were found in certain tests of attention and memory (Legros et Jolles, 1983). Interestingly, oxytocin accelerated "forgetting" in normal female subjects (Ferrier et al 1980), thus inducing an effect opposite to that ofvasopressin, as was also found in animal studies (see before).…”

Section: Clinical Studiesmentioning

confidence: 79%

Hypothalamic neuropeptides and memory

1985

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Vasopressin and oxytocin exert pronounced effects on behavior by a direct action on the brain. A single injection of vasopressin results in a long-term inhibition of extinction of a conditioned avoidance response suggesting that vasopressin triggers a long-term effect on the maintenance of a learned response, probably by facilitation of memory processes. In addition vasopressin improves passive avoidance behavior, facilitates retention of sexually motivated T-maze choice behavior in male rats, delays extinction of an appetitive discrimination task, affects approach behavior to an imprinting stimulus in ducklings, delays the postcastration decline in copulatory behavior in male rats, prevents or reverses amnesia induced by electroconvulsive shock, CO2 inhalation, pentylenetetrazol or puromycin. The majority of these effects may be explained by stimulatory influences of vasopressin on memory processes. Generally oxytocin exerts effects which are opposite to those of vasopressin and it has been suggested that oxytocin may be an amnesic neuropeptide. Evidence has been obtained that endogenous vasopressin and oxytocin play a physiological role in brain processes related to memory. Various limbic system structures seem to act as the anatomical substrate for the behavioral effects of vasopressin and different neurotransmitter systems seem to be involved. It is postulated that in case vasopressin affects retrieval processes the site of action is located in the amygdala and the dentate gyrus of the hippocampal complex with dopamine and serotonin as the respective neurotransmitter systems involved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Influence of oxytocin on human memory processes

Cited by 88 publications

References 14 publications

Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans

Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans

Learning About Oxytocin: Pharmacologic and Behavioral Issues

Hypothalamic neuropeptides and memory

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