oxytocin

Oxytocin receptor expression patterns in the human brain across development

We demonstrate distinct patterns of OXTR gene expression in the developing brain, with increasing oxytocin receptor (OXTR) expression along the course of the prenatal period culminating in a peak during early childhood. We also show that a network of genes with strong spatiotemporal couplings with OXTR is enriched in several psychiatric illness and body composition phenotypes. Taken together, these results demonstrate that oxytocin signaling plays an important role in a diverse set of psychological and somatic processes across the lifespan.

Oxytocin’s dynamic role across the lifespan

Older adults have been neglected in biobehavioral oxytocin research. Emerging research indicates that oxytocin signaling activity fluctuates over the lifespan, which suggests that results from studies investigating youth and young adults cannot be …

Rethinking Oxytocin’s role in cognition

The neuropeptide oxytocin has garnered considerable interest for its role in social behavior and its potential for the treatment of psychiatric illnesses characterised by social dysfunction, such as autism. However, initial excitement has turned to disappointment with some studies failing to replicate earlier results, which has been attributed to issues surrounding research methods, mechanistic understanding, and theory development. In this talk, I discuss efforts to improve research methods to enhance reproducibility, including precise sample size estimation, synthetic datasets, and ways to test evidence for null models

Improving the precision of intranasal oxytocin research

We outline how the precision of intranasal oxytocin research can be improved by the complementary consideration of methodology, theory and reproducibility

Oxytocin

Examining how the oxytocin system impacts mental and somatic health

Advances in the field of intranasal oxytocin research: lessons learned and future directions for clinical research

In this review we outline recent advances from human and animal research that provide converging evidence for functionally relevant effects of the intranasal oxytocin administration route, suggesting that direct nose-to-brain delivery underlies the behavioral effects of oxytocin on social cognition and behavior

Associations of loneliness and social isolation with cardiovascular and metabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

A growing number of studies suggest that social isolation and loneliness are associated with premature mortality and are more prevalent among people with mental illness than in the general population, outlining many potential paths to disease still …

Linking central gene expression patterns and mental states using transcriptomics and large-scale meta-analysis of fMRI data: A tutorial and example using the oxytocin signaling pathway

The measurement of gene expression levels in the human brain can help accelerate our understanding of complex mental states and psychiatric illnesses. Mental states are typically associated with whole-brain networks, however, gene expression levels …

Most oxytocin administration studies are statistically underpowered to reliably detect (or reject) a wide range of effect sizes

The neuropeptide oxytocin has attracted substantial research interest for its role in behaviour and cognition; however, the evidence for its effects have been mixed. Meta-analysis is viewed as the gold-standard for synthesizing evidence, but the …

Oxytocin modulation of self-referential processing is partly replicable and sensitive to oxytocin receptor genotype

Intranasal oxytocin (OXT) has been associated with effects on diverse social-emotional domains in humans, however progress towards a therapeutic application of OXT in disorders with social-emotion impairments is currently hampered by poor …