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Study · Randomized controlled trial · n = 52 · 2017

5 results

Oxytocin differentially modulates pavlovian cue and context fear acquisition.

Cavalli J, Ruttorf M, Pahi MR, Zidda F, Flor H, Nees F

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience1 Jun 2017Cited by 13 (Europe PMC)

PMID28402515 (opens in a new tab)PMCIDPMC5472122 (opens in a new tab)DOI10.1093/scan/nsx028 (opens in a new tab)PepBankPUB-28402515
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Summary

The text of this summary is not shown here, because the article license does not allow reuse. Read it at the source (opens in a new tab)

Text rights: CC BY-NC. Results still quote short attributed sentences.

Results from this study5

5 results from studies that gave the peptide. 5 results from people.

  1. 01HumanRandomized controlled trialMechanism

    In healthy adults, intranasal oxytocin decreased nucleus accumbens responses during early cue and context fear acquisition versus placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy adults, oxytocin lowered activity in a reward-related brain area early in fear learning compared with placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    DecreaseNucleus accumbens response during early cue and context fear acquisition
    Study

    n = 52

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    Dose not stated · intranasalAs given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    OXT compared with PLC significantly induced decreased responses in the nucleus accumbens during early cue and context acquisition, and decreased responses of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula during early as well as increased hippocampal response during late context, but not cue acquisition.
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled design, we administered an intranasal dose of OXT or PLC before the acquisition of cue and context fear conditioning in healthy individuals (n = 52), and assessed brain responses, skin conductance responses and self-reports (valence/arousal/contingency).
  2. 02HumanRandomized controlled trialMechanism

    In healthy adults, intranasal oxytocin decreased anterior cingulate cortex responses during early fear acquisition versus placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy adults, oxytocin lowered activity in the anterior cingulate brain area early in fear learning compared with placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    DecreaseAnterior cingulate cortex response during early acquisition
    Study

    n = 52

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    Dose not stated · intranasalAs given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    OXT compared with PLC significantly induced decreased responses in the nucleus accumbens during early cue and context acquisition, and decreased responses of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula during early as well as increased hippocampal response during late context, but not cue acquisition.
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled design, we administered an intranasal dose of OXT or PLC before the acquisition of cue and context fear conditioning in healthy individuals (n = 52), and assessed brain responses, skin conductance responses and self-reports (valence/arousal/contingency).
  3. 03HumanRandomized controlled trialMechanism

    In healthy adults, intranasal oxytocin decreased insula responses during early fear acquisition versus placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy adults, oxytocin lowered activity in the insula brain area early in fear learning compared with placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    DecreaseInsula response during early acquisition
    Study

    n = 52

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    Dose not stated · intranasalAs given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    OXT compared with PLC significantly induced decreased responses in the nucleus accumbens during early cue and context acquisition, and decreased responses of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula during early as well as increased hippocampal response during late context, but not cue acquisition.
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled design, we administered an intranasal dose of OXT or PLC before the acquisition of cue and context fear conditioning in healthy individuals (n = 52), and assessed brain responses, skin conductance responses and self-reports (valence/arousal/contingency).
  4. 04HumanRandomized controlled trialMechanism

    In healthy adults, intranasal oxytocin increased hippocampal response during late context fear acquisition, but not during cue acquisition, versus placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy adults, oxytocin raised hippocampus activity late in context fear learning, but not cue learning, compared with placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    IncreaseHippocampal response during late context acquisition
    Study

    n = 52

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    Dose not stated · intranasalAs given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    OXT compared with PLC significantly induced decreased responses in the nucleus accumbens during early cue and context acquisition, and decreased responses of the anterior cingulate cortex and insula during early as well as increased hippocampal response during late context, but not cue acquisition.
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled design, we administered an intranasal dose of OXT or PLC before the acquisition of cue and context fear conditioning in healthy individuals (n = 52), and assessed brain responses, skin conductance responses and self-reports (valence/arousal/contingency).
  5. 05HumanRandomized controlled trialEfficacy outcome

    In healthy adults, the oxytocin group showed significantly higher arousal in late cue and context fear acquisition than the placebo group.

    In plain wordsIn healthy adults, people given oxytocin reported higher arousal late in fear learning than people given placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    IncreaseSelf-reported arousal in late cue and context acquisition
    Study

    n = 52

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    Dose not stated · intranasalAs given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    The OXT group additionally showed significantly higher arousal in late cue and context acquisition.
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled design, we administered an intranasal dose of OXT or PLC before the acquisition of cue and context fear conditioning in healthy individuals (n = 52), and assessed brain responses, skin conductance responses and self-reports (valence/arousal/contingency).

AI wrote and checked these results. AI can make mistakes, so check important results against the source.

Version history

PepBank keeps every version of the data on this study. Status changes from Retraction Watch, Europe PMC and Crossref are listed with their source.

  1. Version 2Current

    11 Oct 2026, 01:30 UTC

    Study results updated

  2. Version 1

    9 Oct 2026, 02:49 UTC

    First added · source update from Europe PMC

Subjects

Terms as the source lists them.

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