Oxytocin, autism and emotions

Oxytocin is a hormone which plays an important part in labour, delivery and breastfeeding and it also plays a role in promoting trust, love and social recognition. Recently psychologists have become interested in using oxtyocin to treat autism. Dr Adam Guastella from the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney studied the effects of oxytocin on adolescents with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). They gave half of them an oxytocin nasal spray and half a placebo. The participants were also asked to complete a facial expression task that measured how well they recognised emotions. The study found that the participants were better at recognising emotions after they had received the oxytocin spray.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100408105200.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

New research points to the importance of oxytocin

Oxytocin is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland. It plays an important part in labour and breastfeeding and is also associated with social recognition, pair bonding, dampening negative emotional responses, trust and love. Researchers at Oregon State University have been investigating how a genetic variation that influences how the body processes oxytocin could be linked to the way people deal with stress and feel empathy for others. 200 college students were subjected to blasts of white noise after a countdown presented on screeen; their heart rates were measured to see how they responded to stress. The students also took another test trying to work out people's emotions from pictures of their eyes; this test was designed to measure empathy. The students with one particular variation of the gene felt less stress after the white noise and performed much better on the empathy task. Previous research using a nasal spray to deliver oxytocin to people with autism found that it increased their scores on tests of empathy.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091116163212.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader