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Yin H, Jiang M, Han T, Xu X. Intranasal oxytocin as a treatment for anxiety and autism: From subclinical to clinical applications. Peptides 2024; 176:171211. [PMID: 38579916 DOI: 10.1016/j.peptides.2024.171211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2024] [Revised: 03/18/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/07/2024]
Abstract
Animal and human studies have demonstrated that intranasal oxytocin (OT) can penetrate the brain and induce cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes, particularly in social functioning. Consequently, numerous investigations have explored the potential of OT as a treatment for anxiety and autism, conditions characterized by social deficits. Although both subclinical and clinical studies provide converging evidence of the therapeutic effects of OT in reducing anxiety levels and improving social symptoms in autism, results are not always consistent. Additionally, the pharmacological mechanism of OT requires further elucidation for its effective clinical application. Therefore, this review aims to examine the contentious findings concerning the effects of OT on anxiety and autism, offer interpretations of the inconsistent results from the perspectives of individual differences and varying approaches to OT administration, and shed light on the underlying mechanisms of OT. Ultimately, standardization of dosage, frequency of administration, formulation characteristics, and nasal spray devices is proposed as essential for future human studies and clinical applications of OT treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hailian Yin
- School of psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China
| | - Meiyun Jiang
- School of psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China
| | - Tao Han
- Department of Neurology, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250000, China.
| | - Xiaolei Xu
- School of psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China.
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2
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Arutiunian V, Santhosh M, Neuhaus E, Borland H, Tompkins C, Bernier RA, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M, Gupta AR, Jack A, Jeste S, McPartland JC, Naples A, Van Horn JD, Pelphrey KA, Webb SJ. The relationship between gamma-band neural oscillations and language skills in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their first-degree relatives. Mol Autism 2024; 15:19. [PMID: 38711098 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-024-00598-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Most children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have co-occurring language impairments and some of these autism-specific language difficulties are also present in their non-autistic first-degree relatives. One of the possible neural mechanisms associated with variability in language functioning is alterations in cortical gamma-band oscillations, hypothesized to be related to neural excitation and inhibition balance. METHODS We used a high-density 128-channel electroencephalography (EEG) to register brain response to speech stimuli in a large sex-balanced sample of participants: 125 youth with ASD, 121 typically developing (TD) youth, and 40 unaffected siblings (US) of youth with ASD. Language skills were assessed with Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. RESULTS First, during speech processing, we identified significantly elevated gamma power in ASD participants compared to TD controls. Second, across all youth, higher gamma power was associated with lower language skills. Finally, the US group demonstrated an intermediate profile in both language and gamma power, with nonverbal IQ mediating the relationship between gamma power and language skills. LIMITATIONS We only focused on one of the possible neural contributors to variability in language functioning. Also, the US group consisted of a smaller number of participants in comparison to the ASD or TD groups. Finally, due to the timing issue in EEG system we have provided only non-phase-locked analysis. CONCLUSIONS Autistic youth showed elevated gamma power, suggesting higher excitation in the brain in response to speech stimuli and elevated gamma power was related to lower language skills. The US group showed an intermediate pattern of gamma activity, suggesting that the broader autism phenotype extends to neural profiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vardan Arutiunian
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1920 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA, 98101, USA
| | - Megha Santhosh
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1920 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA, 98101, USA
| | - Emily Neuhaus
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1920 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA, 98101, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute of Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Heather Borland
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1920 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA, 98101, USA
| | - Chris Tompkins
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute of Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Raphael A Bernier
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Susan Y Bookheimer
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Mirella Dapretto
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Abha R Gupta
- Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Allison Jack
- Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Shafali Jeste
- Department of Neurology, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | - Adam Naples
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - John D Van Horn
- School of Data Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Kevin A Pelphrey
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Sara Jane Webb
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1920 Terry Ave., Seattle, WA, 98101, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
- Institute of Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
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Audunsdottir K, Sartorius AM, Kang H, Glaser BD, Boen R, Nærland T, Alaerts K, Kildal ESM, Westlye LT, Andreassen OA, Quintana DS. The effects of oxytocin administration on social and routinized behaviors in autism: A preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2024; 167:107067. [PMID: 38815399 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2024.107067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Revised: 03/28/2024] [Accepted: 04/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/01/2024]
Abstract
Oxytocin administration has demonstrated considerable promise for providing individualized support for autistic people. However, studies evaluating the effects of oxytocin administration on autistic characteristics have yielded inconsistent results. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the effect of oxytocin administration on social and routinized behaviors in autism using recently developed methods to accurately assess the potential impact of effect size dependency and publication bias. Our frequentist meta-analysis yielded a significant summary effect size estimate for the impact of oxytocin administration on social outcomes in autism (d = 0.22, p < 0.001). The summary effect size estimate for routinized behavior outcomes was not statistically significant (d = 0.14, p = 0.22), with a follow up test indicating that the effect size estimate was not either statistically equivalent (Z = -1.06, p = 0.2), assuming a smallest effect size of interest of 0.25. Frequentist and Bayesian assessments for publication bias, as well as results from Robust Bayesian meta-analysis of oxytocin effects on social outcomes in autism, indicated that summary effect sizes might be inflated due to publication bias. Future studies should aim to reduce bias by preregistering analysis plans and to increase precision with larger sample sizes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristin Audunsdottir
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Alina M Sartorius
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Heemin Kang
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Bernt D Glaser
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Rune Boen
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Medical Genetics, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Terje Nærland
- KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; NevSom, Department of Rare Disorders, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Kaat Alaerts
- Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Emilie S M Kildal
- KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; NevSom, Department of Rare Disorders, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway; Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Lars T Westlye
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ole A Andreassen
- Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Daniel S Quintana
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; NevSom, Department of Rare Disorders, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
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Zhou M, Zhu S, Xu T, Wang J, Zhuang Q, Zhang Y, Becker B, Kendrick KM, Yao S. Neural and behavioral evidence for oxytocin's facilitatory effects on learning in volatile and stable environments. Commun Biol 2024; 7:109. [PMID: 38242969 PMCID: PMC10799007 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-05792-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/08/2024] [Indexed: 01/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Outcomes of past decisions profoundly shape our behavior. However, choice-outcome associations can become volatile and adaption to such changes is of importance. The present study combines pharmaco-electroencephalography with computational modeling to examine whether intranasal oxytocin can modulate reinforcement learning under a volatile vs. a stable association. Results show that oxytocin increases choice accuracy independent of learning context, which is paralleled by a larger N2pc and a smaller P300. Model-based analyses reveal that while oxytocin promotes learning by accelerating value update of outcomes in the volatile context, in the stable context it does so by improving choice consistency. These findings suggest that oxytocin's facilitatory effects on learning may be exerted via improving early attentional selection and late neural processing efficiency, although at the computational level oxytocin's actions are highly adaptive between learning contexts. Our findings provide proof of concept for oxytocin's therapeutic potential in mental disorders with adaptive learning dysfunction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Menghan Zhou
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
- The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Siyu Zhu
- School of Sport Training, Chengdu Sport University, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China
| | - Ting Xu
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
- The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Jiayuan Wang
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
- The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Qian Zhuang
- The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
- Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
| | - Yuan Zhang
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
- The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Pokfulam, China
- Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Pokfulam, China
| | - Keith M Kendrick
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
- The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Shuxia Yao
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China.
- The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
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Zhang H, Chen K, Bao J, Wu H. Oxytocin enhances the triangular association among behavior, resting-state, and task-state functional connectivity. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:6074-6089. [PMID: 37771300 PMCID: PMC10619367 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26498] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2023] [Revised: 09/12/2023] [Accepted: 09/15/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Considerable advances in the role of oxytocin (OT) effect on behavior and the brain network have been made, but the effect of OT on the association between inter-individual differences in functional connectivity (FC) and behavior is elusive. Here, by using a face-perception task and multiple connectome-based predictive models, we aimed to (1) determine whether OT could enhance the association among behavioral performance, resting-state FC (rsFC), and task-state FC (tsFC) and (2) if so, explore the role of OT in enhancing this triangular association. We found that in the OT group, the prediction performance of using rsFC or tsFC to predict task behavior was higher than that of the PL group. Additionally, the correlation coefficient between rsFC and tsFC was substantially higher in the OT group than in the PL group. The strength of these associations could be partly explained by OT altering the brain's FCs related to social cognition and face perception in both the resting and task states, mainly in brain regions such as the limbic system, prefrontal cortex, temporal poles, and temporoparietal junction. Taken together, these results provide novel evidence and a corresponding mechanism for how neuropeptides cause increased associations among inter-individual differences across different levels (e.g., behavior and large-scale brain networks in both resting and task-state), and may inspire future research on the role of neuropeptides in the cross levels association of both clinical and nonclinical use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haoming Zhang
- Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Department of PsychologyUniversity of MacauMacauChina
| | - Kun Chen
- Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Department of PsychologyUniversity of MacauMacauChina
| | - Jin Bao
- Shenzhen Neher Neural Plasticity Laboratory, Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)ShenzhenChina
- Shenzhen‐Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science‐Shenzhen Fundamental Research InstitutionsShenzhenChina
| | - Haiyan Wu
- Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Department of PsychologyUniversity of MacauMacauChina
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Zhang C, Ma Y, Qiao L, Zhang L, Liu M. Learning to Fuse Multiple Brain Functional Networks for Automated Autism Identification. BIOLOGY 2023; 12:971. [PMID: 37508401 PMCID: PMC10376072 DOI: 10.3390/biology12070971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2023] [Revised: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
Functional connectivity network (FCN) has become a popular tool to identify potential biomarkers for brain dysfunction, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Due to its importance, researchers have proposed many methods to estimate FCNs from resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data. However, the existing FCN estimation methods usually only capture a single relationship between brain regions of interest (ROIs), e.g., linear correlation, nonlinear correlation, or higher-order correlation, thus failing to model the complex interaction among ROIs in the brain. Additionally, such traditional methods estimate FCNs in an unsupervised way, and the estimation process is independent of the downstream tasks, which makes it difficult to guarantee the optimal performance for ASD identification. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a multi-FCN fusion framework for rs-fMRI-based ASD classification. Specifically, for each subject, we first estimate multiple FCNs using different methods to encode rich interactions among ROIs from different perspectives. Then, we use the label information (ASD vs. healthy control (HC)) to learn a set of fusion weights for measuring the importance/discrimination of those estimated FCNs. Finally, we apply the adaptively weighted fused FCN on the ABIDE dataset to identify subjects with ASD from HCs. The proposed FCN fusion framework is straightforward to implement and can significantly improve diagnostic accuracy compared to traditional and state-of-the-art methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaojun Zhang
- The School of Computer Science and Technology, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250101, China
- The School of Mathematics Science, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252000, China
| | - Yunling Ma
- The School of Mathematics Science, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252000, China
| | - Lishan Qiao
- The School of Mathematics Science, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252000, China
| | - Limei Zhang
- The School of Computer Science and Technology, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250101, China
| | - Mingxia Liu
- Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
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Tsingotjidou AS. Oxytocin: A Multi-Functional Biomolecule with Potential Actions in Dysfunctional Conditions; From Animal Studies and Beyond. Biomolecules 2022; 12:1603. [PMID: 36358953 PMCID: PMC9687803 DOI: 10.3390/biom12111603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Revised: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/23/2022] [Indexed: 10/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Oxytocin is a hormone secreted from definite neuroendocrine neurons located in specific nuclei in the hypothalamus (mainly from paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei), and its main known function is the contraction of uterine and/or mammary gland cells responsible for parturition and breastfeeding. Among the actions of the peripherally secreted oxytocin is the prevention of different degenerative disorders. These actions have been proven in cell culture and in animal models or have been tested in humans based on hypotheses from previous studies. This review presents the knowledge gained from the previous studies, displays the results from oxytocin intervention and/or treatment and proposes that the well described actions of oxytocin might be connected to other numerous, diverse actions of the biomolecule.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anastasia S Tsingotjidou
- Laboratory of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124 Thessaloniki, Greece
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