Oxytocin and the Social Brain

Overview

It has long been established that interpersonal relationships can have a profound impact on health and well-being. Yet, the investigators are still learning about the complex biological processes that contribute to positive social interactions and the ability to develop and maintain social relationships. Recent research has begun to focus on oxytocin, a neuropeptide that is naturally produced in the hypothalamus, because administration of this neuropeptide has been associated with increased trust, generosity, empathy, cooperation, memory of social stimuli (e.g., faces), and brain activity in neural regions associated with social and emotional processes. To date, several aspects of oxytocin's effects on social behavior have been unexplored. As such, the overarching goal of this project is to examine the effects of intranasal oxytocin on several tasks involving social processes. In addition, the investigators will explore associated neural activity through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Understanding how oxytocin influences these aspects of social functioning will help to inform research that has begun to establish the potential for use of this neuropeptide in education as well as psychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia that are characterized by social deficits. The investigators hypothesize that compared to placebo, oxytocin will improve deception detection, increase empathy and altruism, and enhance responses to photo stimuli of primary caregivers. These effects will manifest in behavioral and neural activity. It is also hypothesized that main effects will not be found for oxytocin, but rather, analyses of relevant moderators will elucidate these findings.

Full Title of Study: “Oxytocin’s Effects on Behavior and Neural Activity During Social Cognition Tasks”

Study Type

  • Study Type: Interventional
  • Study Design
    • Allocation: Randomized
    • Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
    • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
    • Masking: Double (Participant, Investigator)
  • Study Primary Completion Date: July 2016

Interventions

  • Drug: Intranasal oxytocin
    • Through the use of 1oz bottles attached with metered nasal pumps (1 puff = .1ml), participants will self-administer 24 IU oxytocin (Syntocinon, Novartis Pharmaceuticals). 5 puffs per nostril (1 puff = 2.4 IU oxytocin).
  • Drug: Intranasal placebo
    • Through the use of 1oz bottles attached with metered nasal pumps (1 puff = .1ml), participants will self-administer 5 puffs per nostril. Placebo consists of: 2 mls Glycerine and 3 mls purified water (methylparaben and propylparaben mixed according to purified water formula) for a total of 5 ml, which will be filtered with a 5mu filter.

Arms, Groups and Cohorts

  • Experimental: Intranasal oxytocin
    • Participants will self-administer 24 IU oxytocin (Syntocinon, Novartis Pharmaceuticals). 5 puffs per nostril (1 puff = 2.4 IU oxytocin).
  • Placebo Comparator: Intranasal placebo
    • 2 mls Glycerine and 3 mls purified water (methylparaben and propylparaben mixed according to purified water formula) for a total of 5 ml, which will be filtered with a 5mu filter. Participants will self-administer 5 puffs per nostril.

Clinical Trial Outcome Measures

Primary Measures

  • Changes in neural brain activity, as observed by fMRI, when observing others during social inclusion vs. exclusion
    • Time Frame: Between 40-115 minutes post administration
    • Whole brain and region of interest (ROI) regression analysis will be used to compare the neural activity of participants in the oxytocin/placebo groups. A design matrix will be created for each participant, modeling activity that is greater during the exclusion portion of the cyberball task versus the inclusion portion. A first-level analysis will compare [(friend exclusion>friend inclusion)>(stranger exclusion>stranger inclusion)] for each participant. A second-level group analysis will compare these first-level contrasts between the oxytocin and placebo groups.

Secondary Measures

  • Ratings of empathic concern after witnessing social exclusion in a friend or a stranger
    • Time Frame: Between 40-115 minutes post administration
    • Ratings of empathic concern will be calculated for each participant by deriving a composite from self-report ratings of sympathy and compassion. Using a mixed 2 (friend, stranger) x 2 (oxytocin, placebo) factorial design, comparisons of these ratings will then be made for those in the oxytocin vs. placebo groups. Main effects of drug condition (oxytocin, placebo) as well as the interaction between drug condition and target (friend, stranger) will be analyzed at a significance level of p<.05.
  • Altruism and punishment as measured by number of points given to excluders and those excluded
    • Time Frame: Between 40-115 minutes post administration
    • Ratings of altruism and punishment will be calculated by examining how many point (1-10) participants decide to allocate towards the friend-excluder, stranger-excluder, excluded friend, and excluded stranger after watching each social exclusion game. Using a mixed 2 (friend, stranger) x 2 (oxytocin, placebo) factorial design, comparisons of these ratings will then be made for those in the oxytocin vs. placebo groups. Main effects of drug condition (oxytocin, placebo) and target (friend, stranger), as well as an interaction between drug condition and target will be analyzed at a significance level of p<.05.
  • Changes in neural brain activity, as observed by fMRI, while attempting to detect deception
    • Time Frame: Between 40-115 minutes post administration
    • Whole brain and region of interest (ROI) regression analysis will be used to compare the neural activity of participants in the oxytocin/placebo groups. A design matrix will be created for each participant, modeling activity that is greater during the deception detection task versus a control task. A first-level analysis will compare deception-detection>control for each participant. A second-level group analysis will compare this first-level contrast between the oxytocin and placebo groups.
  • Accuracy of deception detection as measured by self-report
    • Time Frame: Between 40-115 minutes post administration
    • We will compare the percentage of correct deception detection trials for participants in the oxytocin group to those in the placebo group by running a two-tailed t-test with a statistical cutoff of p<.05 to determine significance.
  • Changes in neural brain activity, as observed by fMRI, when viewing images of primary caregivers versus strangers
    • Time Frame: Between 40-115 minutes post administration
    • Whole brain and region of interest (ROI) regression analysis will be used to compare the neural activity of participants in the oxytocin/placebo groups. A design matrix will be created for each participant, modeling activity that is greater while viewing photo stimuli of ones primary caregivers versus viewing photo stimuli of matched strangers. A first-level analysis will compare primary-caregiver-viewing>stranger-viewing for each participant. A second-level group analysis will compare this first-level contrast between the oxytocin and placebo groups.

Participating in This Clinical Trial

Inclusion Criteria

  • 18-30 years of age – Healthy (see below) – Fluent in English – Right-handed Exclusion Criteria:

  • Women who gave birth in the last six months, are currently pregnant, planning to become pregnant in the next 6 months, or currently breastfeeding women – Symptoms of runny nose due to allergies/cold or other reason – Current restricted fluid intake for any reason – Heart disease – Hypertension – History of myocardial infarction – History of cardiac arrhythmia – Kidney or liver disease – Vascular disease – Epilepsy – Migraine – Asthma – Nephritis – Diabetes and other endocrine diseases – Frequent or unexplained fainting – History of stroke – Aneurysm or brain hemorrhage – Active psychiatric diagnosis – Current psychopharmacologic treatment – Drug or alcohol abuse – Medical or neurological illness – Regular use of medication (e.g., vasoconstrictive medications) – Medication intake less than 2 weeks prior to study (5 weeks for fluoxetine) including daily non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs – Smoking more than 15 cigarettes a day – Consumption of any alcoholic beverages in the past 24 hours will be excluded – Elevated blood pressure (>135/90) – Low blood pressure (<90/55) – Body temperature >100.1 F – Left-handed – Claustrophobia – Presence of metal in their body

Gender Eligibility: All

Minimum Age: 18 Years

Maximum Age: 30 Years

Are Healthy Volunteers Accepted: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Investigator Details

  • Lead Sponsor
    • University of California, Los Angeles
  • Provider of Information About this Clinical Study
    • Principal Investigator: Matthew Lieberman, Matthew D. Lieberman, PhD – University of California, Los Angeles
  • Overall Official(s)
    • Matthew D Lieberman, PhD, Principal Investigator, University of California, Los Angeles

Clinical trials entries are delivered from the US National Institutes of Health and are not reviewed separately by this site. Please see the identifier information above for retrieving further details from the government database.

At TrialBulletin.com, we keep tabs on over 200,000 clinical trials in the US and abroad, using medical data supplied directly by the US National Institutes of Health. Please see the About and Contact page for details.