Salivary and plasmatic oxytocin are not reliable trait markers of the physiology of the oxytocin system in humans

Martins, Daniel; Gabay, Anthony S.; Mehta, Mitul A.; Paloyelis, Yannis

doi:10.7554/elife.62456

Cited by 61 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Finally, the half-life of OXT in blood is short, lower than 4 min [ 41 ], and the nature of lactation-induced release of OXT in blood is pulsatile [ 42 , 43 ]. On the contrary, despite the half-life of sOXT still being unknown, the most likely hypothesis is that OXT half-life in saliva is longer than OXT half-life in plasma [ 44 , 45 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Oxytocin on Maternal Care in Lactating Dogs

Ogi

Mariti

Pirrone

et al. 2021

Animals

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In recent years, many studies on the role of oxytocin (OXT) in the onset of parental care, regulation of social bonding, and modulation of the emotional state have been published. However, its possible regulation of maternal behavior in lactating dogs has not been investigated yet. For this reason, the present study aimed at assessing potential correlations between salivary oxytocin and maternal behavior in 25 lactating Labrador Retriever dogs. Salivary concentrations of OXT (sOXT) were unrelated to the amount of maternal care except for a weak negative correlation with sniffing/poking behavior. Moreover, sOXT was positively correlated with the percentage of male puppies. Sniffing/poking behavior, in turn, was positively correlated with the duration of time the mothers spent out of the whelping box, while the number of male puppies showed a positive correlation with lateral nursing, a position known to provide puppies the easiest access to the milk. Taken together, these results suggest that sOXT may not be strongly associated with maternal care dynamics but could be correlated with sex-biased parental investment in dogs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Oxytocin on Maternal Care in Lactating Dogs

Ogi

Mariti

Pirrone

et al. 2021

Animals

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“…Participants completed their spiritual/religious faith questionnaire in 2015, whereas their saliva samples were collected in 2018. Although previous studies have suggested the individual stability of both peripheral oxytocin levels (Schneiderman et al, 2012;Feldman et al, 2013;Gordon et al, 2017) and religious beliefs (Koenig et al, 2008;Koenig, 2015), some studies argued that oxytocin levels could vary with each day (Martins et al, 2020). Therefore, in future studies, it is required to measure all indexes simultaneously and determine whether the same results are replicated or not.…”

Section: Limitation and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salivary Oxytocin Is Negatively Associated With Religious Faith in Japanese Non-Abrahamic People

et al. 2021

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Spirituality and religiosity have a significant impact on one's well-being. Although previous studies have indicated that the neuropeptide hormone oxytocin is associated with spirituality/religiosity, existing findings remain inconsistent. Some studies have reported a positive relationship between oxytocin and spirituality/religiosity, while other studies have reported a negative association. Herein, we examined the association between endogenous oxytocin and spirituality/religiosity in 200 non-Abrahamic Japanese individuals (102 females, mean age ± standard deviation = 41.53 ± 10.46) by measuring the level of salivary oxytocin and spiritual/religious faith. We found that the level of salivary oxytocin was negatively associated with spiritual/religious faith. Individuals with higher levels of salivary oxytocin tend to have more negative spiritual/religious faith compared with those with low oxytocin levels (e.g., “Spirituality/religiosity makes people passive and clinging.”). Moreover, this tendency was only significant in individuals who were not interested in a specific religion. The uniqueness of spirituality/religiosity in Japan could help interpret the current findings.

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“…First, an important assumption is that the test-retest reliability of peripheral neuropeptide measures. However, there is poor week-to-week reliability of plasma or saliva oxytocin (Martins et al, 2020a) or plasma vasopressin (Quintana et al, 2017b;Stachenfeld et al, 1999), which is a closely related neuropeptide.…”

Section: Oxytocin Concentrations In Peripheral Fluids Are a Reliable Measure Of Oxytocin System Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards better hypothesis tests in oxytocin research: Evaluating the validity of auxiliary assumptions

Quintana¹

2021

Preprint

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Various factors have been attributed to the inconsistent reproducibility of human oxytocin research in the cognitive and behavioral sciences. These factors include small sample sizes, a lack of pre-registered studies, and the absence of overarching theoretical frameworks that can account for oxytocin’s effects over a broad range of contexts. While there have been efforts to remedy these issues, there has been very little systematic scrutiny of the role of auxiliary assumptions, which are claims that are not central for testing a hypothesis but nonetheless critical for testing theories. For instance, the hypothesis that oxytocin increases the salience of social cues is predicated on the assumption that intranasally administered oxytocin increases oxytocin levels in the brain. Without robust auxiliary assumptions, it is unclear whether a hypothesis testing failure is due to an incorrect hypothesis or weak auxiliary assumptions. Consequently, weak auxiliary assumptions can be blamed for hypothesis failure, thereby safeguarding theories from falsification. In this article, I will evaluate the body of evidence for key auxiliary assumptions in human behavioral oxytocin research in terms of theory, experimental design, and statistical inference, and highlight assumptions that require stronger evidence. Strong auxiliary assumptions will leave hypotheses vulnerable for falsification, which will improve hypothesis testing and consequently advance our understanding of oxytocin’s role in behavior and cognition.

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Salivary and plasmatic oxytocin are not reliable trait markers of the physiology of the oxytocin system in humans

Cited by 61 publications

References 53 publications

The Influence of Oxytocin on Maternal Care in Lactating Dogs

The Influence of Oxytocin on Maternal Care in Lactating Dogs

Salivary Oxytocin Is Negatively Associated With Religious Faith in Japanese Non-Abrahamic People

Towards better hypothesis tests in oxytocin research: Evaluating the validity of auxiliary assumptions

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