Brain Dynamics of Oxytocin

Status

Completed

Phase

Phase 1

Enrollment

51 participants (actual)

Sponsor

Stony Brook University · Other

Design

Randomized · Quadruple masking

Countries

1 country

United States

Start

Apr 2013

Primary completion

May 2015

Completion

May 2015

First posted

17 Apr 2013 (estimated)

Last update posted

17 Mar 2017

Conditions

Brain Dynamics in Healthy Adults

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.

• Active comparator

  Oxytocin

  Healthy adult subjects will receive several puffs of Syntocinon Nasal Spray, 40IU, once, prior to MRI and/or MEG scanning.

• Placebo comparator

  Placebo

  Healthy adult subjects will receive several puffs of Syntocinon Placebo Formulation, 40IU, once, prior to MRI and/or MEG scanning.

1. Number of Benevolent Rounds

   Time frame · Immediately after completion of the study, for each subject.

   Registry description

   This study recruited healthy adults. Subjects participated in an interactive neuroeconomic game, an iterative version of the classical "Trust Study." During this game, the subject ('investor') is first provided a sum of money (20 units). He then has the choice in terms of how much to invest in a fictional computer-generated trustee. The trustee then sends some percentage back to the subject ('investor'), and the game iterates over 20 trials (rounds). We computed the investment ratio as the ratio of the actual investment and the maximum allowed amount of 20 units, and analogously for the repayment ratio. Benevolent rounds were defined as those with increased investment ratios even after a decreased repayment ratio.

2. Number of Malevolent Rounds

   Time frame · Immediately after completion of the study, for each subject.

   Registry description

   This study recruited healthy adults. Subjects participated in an interactive neuroeconomic game, an iterative version of the classical "Trust Study." During this game, the subject ('investor') is first provided a sum of money (20 units). He then has the choice in terms of how much to invest in a fictional computer-generated trustee. The trustee then sends some percentage back to the subject ('investor'), and the game iterates over 20 trials (rounds). We computed the investment ratio as the ratio of the actual investment and the maximum allowed amount of 20 units, and analogously for the repayment ratio. Malevolent rounds were defined as those with decreased investment ratios even after an increased repayment ratio.