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Neurobiological Bases of Paternal Nurturance

NCT02223429 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 35

Last updated 2017-06-05

Study results available
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Summary

The overall goal of this project is to identify the genetic, hormonal, and neurobiological influences on paternal nurturing behavior and to determine if fathers' neural responses to infants can be modulated by neuropeptides known to play a role in parenting in experimental animal models.

The aim is to determine if pharmacological manipulation of central oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) levels influences the neural response to viewing pictures of one's own infant or to hearing cry stimuli. In a double-blind procedure, fathers with 1-3 year old children will be scanned on two separate occasions; once under the influence of OT/AVP and once under the influence of placebo. Fathers will be randomized to either OT or AVP, and order of administration of drug and placebo will counterbalanced across subjects. Fathers will be scanned while viewing pictures of their own and an unknown child and while listening to unknown infant cry stimuli.

The investigators hypothesize:

* OT will augment the ventral tegmental area (VTA), ventral striatum and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) response to viewing pictures of one's own child, and will augment the primary auditory cortex (AI) response of fathers to infant cries.
* AVP will augment the lateral septum response to viewing own child pictures.

Conditions

  • Healthy

Interventions

DRUG

Oxytocin

1 ml solution in each nostril; five (5) sprays per each nostril, for a total of ten (10) sprays

DRUG

Vasopressin

1 ml solution in each nostril; five (5) sprays per each nostril, for a total of ten (10) sprays

DRUG

Placebo

1 ml solution in each nostril; five (5) sprays per each nostril, for a total of ten (10) sprays

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

    collaborator NIH

  • James K. Rilling, PhD

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • James K Rilling, Ph.D. · Emory University

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
TRIPLE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-08-31
Primary Completion
2016-02-29
Completion
2016-02-29

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Drugs

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 NCT02223429 on ClinicalTrials.gov