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Brain Dynamics of Oxytocin

NCT01834261 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE1 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 51

Last updated 2017-03-17

Study results available
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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.

Conditions

  • Brain Dynamics in Healthy Adults

Interventions

DRUG

Syntocinon Nasal Spray, 40IU

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.

DRUG

Syntocinon Placebo Formulation, 40IU

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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Lilianne Mujica-Parodi, PhD · Stony Brook University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
QUADRUPLE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
45 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2013-04-30
Primary Completion
2015-05-31
Completion
2015-05-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01834261 on ClinicalTrials.gov