Brain Dynamics of Oxytocin
Completed · Phase 1 · Has a placebo group
Conditions studied: Brain Dynamics in Healthy Adults
In brief
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.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT01834261
- Run by
- Stony Brook University
- People needed
- 51
- Starts
- 2013-04-01
- Expected to finish
- 2015-05-01
- Last updated by the study team
- 2017-03-17
Who can join
Age: 18 and older, up to 45. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may qualify if…
- 18-45 years of age
You may not qualify if…
- any significant known medical condition, including mental disorders (confounds interpretation of brain activity)
- metal in the body or claustrophobia (contraindicated for fMRI)
- current use of any type of psychotropic medication (confounds interpretation of brain activity)
- body mass index of greater than 30 (to permit matched dosing across subjects)
- pregnancy (contraindicated for OT)
- breastfeeding (lactation endogenously triggers OT, which would not permit a placebo condition)
- smoking (affects use of nasal spray)
- use of drugs of abuse (confounds interpretation of brain activity)
- blood pressure above the normal range (140/90 mm Hg) or controlled with medication (may theoretically increase risk for OT side-effects)
- anosmia (affects use of nasal spray)
Where it is running
- Martinos Imaging Center at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT — Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Martinos Center for Biomedical Research, Building 149, 13th Street — Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States
- Bioengineering Building , Stony Brook University — Stony Brook, New York, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.