Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Emotion Recognition for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Guastella, Adam J.; Einfeld, Stewart; Gray, Kylie Megan; Rinehart, Nicole; Tonge, Bruce John; Lambert, Timothy; Hickie, Ian B.

doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.09.020

Cited by 857 publications

(643 citation statements)

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“…Interestingly, the AVPR1a receptor of the closely related nonapeptide vasopressin has also been associated with ASD [40][41][42]. This provisional role of OT in ASD, is further supported by two linkage studies [43,44], clinical evidence by several groups demonstrating clinical improvement in ASD following OT administration [45][46][47][48][49][50][51] (also see [52,53]) and studies showing that ASD is also associated with alterations in OT plasma levels [54].…”

Section: Oxytocin and Autism Spectrum Disorders (Asd)mentioning

confidence: 91%

Are retinoids potential therapeutic agents in disorders of social cognition including autism?

et al. 2011

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Edited by Sergio Papa, Gianfranco Gilardi and Wilhelm JustKeywords: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) CD38 Oxytocin Polymorphism a b s t r a c t Increasing evidence suggests that the nonapeptide, oxytocin (OT), helps shape social and affiliative behaviors not only in lower mammals but also in humans. Recently, an essential mediator of brain OT release has been discovered, ADP-ribosyl cyclase and/or CD38. We have subsequently shown that polymorphisms across the CD38 gene are associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Notably, CD38 expression in lymphoblastoid cells (LBC) is reduced in cell lines derived from ASD subjects compared to parental cell lines. Intriguingly, a correlation was observed between CD38 expression and measures of social function in ASD. Finally, we have shown that all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), a known inducer of CD38 transcription, can rescue low CD38 expressing LBC lines derived from ASD subjects and restore normal levels of transcription of this ectoenzyme providing 'proof of principle' in a peripheral model that retinoids are potential therapeutic agents in ASD. Ó 2011 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. OxytocinClassically, the nonapeptide oxytocin (OT) has been viewed as a hypothalamic neuropeptide that is released into the general circulation from the neural lobe of the pituitary, inducing uterine contractions during parturition and milk ejection during lactation. OT is derived from a pre-prohormone precursor that is synthesized in the hypothalamus and stored in vesicles at the posterior pituitary for storage and subsequent release into the bloodstream (see [1] for comprehensive review of the oxytocin receptor system). OT and social behaviorBeyond the long-known peripheral effects of OT, a wealth of animal studies have elaborated the role of OT, or their analogues such as isotocin and vasotocin [2], in molding social behavior from fish to mammals [3]. In the past few years the role of OT has also been examined in our own species, and similar to what has been learned from animal studies, it appears that this nonapeptides also influence social behaviors in humans [4,5]. Indeed, OT has been suggested as the 'great facilitator of life' in a recent review [6].In humans, intranasal administration of OT has been shown to increase trust [7], facilitate mind-reading [8], enhance human memory for social identity [9], increase positive communication between couples [10], increase gaze to the eye region [11] and increase generosity [12]. Intriguingly, OT plasma levels have been linked to individual patterns of maternal-fetal attachment [13] and salivary OT levels were associated with bonding to own parents and inversely related to psychological distress, particularly depressive symptoms [14]. Social anxiety symptom severity, adjusted for age and gender in a healthy group of subjects, was associated with higher plasma oxytocin levels [15]. Imaging studies reinforce the role of OT in influencing human social ...

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Section: Oxytocin and Autism Spectrum Disorders (Asd)mentioning

confidence: 91%

Are retinoids potential therapeutic agents in disorders of social cognition including autism?

et al. 2011

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“…It is noteworthy that OT administration did not significantly improve social perception, given previous literature suggesting that OT administration enhances the accuracy of social perception (e.g., Bartz et al, 2010a) and performance on the RMET in particular (Domes et al, 2007;Feeser et al, 2015;Guastella et al, 2010), a task we also examined here. However, the effects of OT administration on social perception (and many other outcomes) are often highly context dependent (for review see Bartz et al, 2011;Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…However, the effects of OT administration on social perception (and many other outcomes) are often highly context dependent (for review see Bartz et al, 2011;Van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2012). Indeed, OT administration has been shown to have greater benefits for social cognition for individuals lower in social-emotional functioning and has generally been observed in male or clinical samples (e.g., Bartz et al, 2010a;Guastella et al, 2010), which may contribute to the lack of associations with the current gender-diverse and healthy sample. However, other work has recently failed to replicate this effect (Radke and de Bruijn, 2015) and our sample was reasonably well powered to detect effects of at least medium size, which have been observed in prior studies finding positive effects (e.g., Feeser et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Initial work on OT administration suggested that it may promote more positive social behavior, such as greater trust and generosity (Kosfeld et al, 2005;Zak et al, 2007), and more accurate social perception (Bartz et al, 2010a;Domes et al, 2007;Guastella et al, 2010). There has been less examination of the effects of OT on cognitive processes, but one study found that OT administration promoted greater holistic thinking and creative performance, but decreased analytical reasoning (De Dreu et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, OT administration has been shown to selectively improve the accuracy of social perception for men who are less socially proficient (Bartz et al, 2010a) and on more difficult social perception items (Domes et al, 2007). There is also evidence that OT administration is more beneficial for people with alexithymia (Luminet et al, 2011), autism and Asperger's disorders (Andari et al, 2010;Guastella et al, 2010;Hollander et al, 2007), and schizophrenia (Woolley et al, 2014). Further, OT administration has been found to have antisocial effects in negative social contexts, such as those that involve conflict (e.g., De Dreu et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Combining oxytocin administration and positive emotion inductions: Examining social perception and analytical performance

Human

Thorson

Woolley

et al. 2017

Hormones and Behavior

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oIntranasal administration of the hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has, in some studies, been associated with positive effects on social perception and cognition. Similarly, positive emotion inductions can improve a range of perceptual and performance-based behaviors. In this exploratory study, we examined how OT administration and positive emotion inductions interact in their associations with social and analytical performance. Participants (N = 124) were randomly assigned to receive an intranasal spray of OT (40 IU) or placebo and then viewed one of three videos designed to engender one of the following emotion states: social warmth, pride, or an affectively neutral state. Following the emotion induction, participants completed social perception and analytical tasks. There were no significant main effects of OT condition on social perception tasks, failing to replicate prior research, or on analytical performance. Further, OT condition and positive emotion inductions did not interact with each other in their associations with social perception performance. However, OT condition and positive emotion manipulations did significantly interact in their associations with analytical performance. Specifically, combining positive emotion inductions with OT administration was associated with worse analytical performance, with the pride induction no longer benefiting performance and the warmth induction resulting in worse performance. In sum, we found little evidence for main or interactive effects of OT on social perception but preliminary evidence that OT administration may impair analytical performance when paired with positive emotion inductions.

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Mitigation of Sociocommunicational Deficits of Autism Through Oxytocin-Induced Recovery of Medial Prefrontal Activity

et al. 2014

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IMPORTANCE Sociocommunicational deficits make it difficult for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to understand communication content with conflicting verbal and nonverbal information. Despite growing prospects for oxytocin as a therapeutic agent for ASD, no direct neurobiological evidence exists for oxytocin's beneficial effects on this core symptom of ASD. This is slowing clinical application of the neuropeptide.OBJECTIVE To directly examine whether oxytocin has beneficial effects on the sociocommunicational deficits of ASD using both behavioral and neural measures. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS At the University of Tokyo Hospital, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject-crossover, single-site experimental trial in which intranasal oxytocin and placebo were administered. A total of 40 highly functioning men with ASD participated and were randomized in the trial.INTERVENTIONS Single-dose intranasal administration of oxytocin (24 IU) and placebo. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURESUsing functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined effects of oxytocin on behavioral neural responses of the participants to a social psychological task. In our previous case-control study using the same psychological task, when making decisions about social information with conflicting verbal and nonverbal contents, participants with ASD made judgments based on nonverbal contents less frequently with longer time and could not induce enough activation in the medial prefrontal cortex. Therefore, our main outcomes and measures were the frequency of the nonverbal information-based judgments (NVJs), the response time for NVJs, and brain activity of the medial prefrontal cortex during NVJs. RESULTSIntranasal oxytocin enabled the participants to make NVJs more frequently (P = .03) with shorter response time (P = .02). During the mitigated behavior, oxytocin increased the originally diminished brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (P < .001). Moreover, oxytocin enhanced functional coordination in the area (P < .001), and the magnitude of these neural effects was predictive of the behavioral effects (P Յ .01). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEThese findings provide the first neurobiological evidence for oxytocin's beneficial effects on sociocommunicational deficits of ASD and give us the initial account for neurobiological mechanisms underlying any beneficial effects of the neuropeptide.TRIAL REGISTRATION umin.ac.jp/ctr Identifier: UMIN000002241 and UMIN000004393

show abstract

Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Emotion Recognition for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Cited by 857 publications

References 16 publications

Are retinoids potential therapeutic agents in disorders of social cognition including autism?

Are retinoids potential therapeutic agents in disorders of social cognition including autism?

Combining oxytocin administration and positive emotion inductions: Examining social perception and analytical performance

Mitigation of Sociocommunicational Deficits of Autism Through Oxytocin-Induced Recovery of Medial Prefrontal Activity

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