Rethinking oxytocin's role in our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

The neuropeptide oxytocin has garnered considerable interest for its role in social behavior and its potential for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses characterised by social dysfunction, such as autism. However, initial excitement has turned to disappointment with some studies failing to replicate earlier results, which has been attributed to issues surrounding research methods, mechanistic understanding, and theory development.

In this talk, I discuss efforts to improve research methods to enhance reproducibility, including precise sample size estimation, synthetic datasets, and ways to test evidence for null models. I also describe three lines of research aiming to better understand oxytocin signalling mechanisms: i) Research identifying whole brain voxel-by-voxel gene expression patterns of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and its association with mental states via a large-scale fMRI meta-analysis of 14,371 studies, ii) Preliminary data exploring oxytocin's evolutionary history, and iii) data from two clinical trials demonstrating that compared to placebo, 8IU intranasal oxytocin (but not 24IU intranasal oxytocin or 1IU intravenous oxytocin) modulates social cognition, pupil diameter, and neural activity. Altogether, these studies provide the first steps towards identifying targets for oxytocin receptor engagement in the human brain and suggest that a lower 8IU intranasal dose might be more efficacious than the conventional 24IU dose. I also introduce his new theory of oxytocin’s role in human behaviour, which proposes that oxytocin modulates both social and non-social behaviour to maintain stability in changing environments.

This talk was presented to the Faculty of Psychology colloquium at the University of Vienna on March 4, 2021.

[guestaccount]

Fascinating! I just started an Rx for IN oxytocin and must say the difference is remarkable; 6IU doses seem to keep my glial cells from chattering with each other!! LOL Thank you for your efforts. Over two dozen concussions have made my nervous system a bit of a train wreck and oxytocin seems to help (although it could all be in my head! LOL!!)

[mikelister]

I am so desperate to try this . Due to childhood trauma.( Child Separation at birth ) ADHD and severe avoidant attachment isses . And a DNA test that came back rs53576 a/g at 3 times more likely

[CHGLongStone]

Instead of trying to pathologize autism you could look at it in the evolutionary context as well. Given the empathy/systematization axis and the wide range of markers across the genome it seems likely that autism is mechanism (or part thereof) to respond to increased pressure from complexity, especially complexity within social domains. Baron-Cohen seems to be headed in this direction but rather cautiously but still seems hung up on the notion that affective empathy is inherently prosocial when it seems pretty clear that it pathologizes in larger populations quickly where cognitive empathy isn't pathological without some sort of comorbidity.

[CHGLongStone]

Have you looked at increased endogenous production through social cues? Any moral panic issue grounded in care/harm dynamics should do the trick