[autismo-biologia] ossitocina: prime sperimentazioni

[Bice Chini]

I risultati dell' uso dell' ossitocina su comportamneti proscilai sono 
incoraggianti, e le evidenze che l'ossitocina e il suo recettore sono 
importanti nella socialità umana sono evidenziati anche da questo ultimo 
lavoro su PNAS:



Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Dec 15;106(50):21437-41. Epub 2009 Nov 23.

Oxytocin receptor genetic variation relates to empathy and stress reactivity 
in humans.

Rodrigues SM, Saslow LR, Garcia N, John OP, Keltner D.

Institute of Personality and Social Research, University of California, 
Berkeley, CA 94720.

Oxytocin, a peptide that functions as both a hormone and neurotransmitter, 
has broad influences on social and emotional processing throughout the body 
and the brain. In this study, we tested how a polymorphism (rs53576) of the 
oxytocin receptor relates to two key social processes related to oxytocin: 
empathy and stress reactivity. Compared with individuals homozygous for the 
G allele of rs53576 (GG), individuals with one or two copies of the A allele 
(AG/AA) exhibited lower behavioral and dispositional empathy, as measured by 
the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test and an other-oriented empathy scale. 
Furthermore, AA/AG individuals displayed higher physiological and 
dispositional stress reactivity than GG individuals, as determined by heart 
rate response during a startle anticipation task and an affective reactivity 
scale. Our results provide evidence of how a naturally occurring genetic 
variation of the oxytocin receptor relates to both empathy and stress 
profiles.



tuttavia, vorrei sotttoporre alla vostra attenzione anche questo lavoro, che 
indica che l' ossitocina non è solo un ormone prosociale in termini " 
positvi" ma sembra anche essere in grado di aumentare sentimenti ed emozioni 
negative, invidia e “gloating” (gongolamento per le disgrazie altrui), che 
pure fanno parte, come ben sappiamo, della socialità umana. Ossitocina e 
vasopressina sono peptidi chiave anche nel regolare l' aggresività sociale, 
con meccanismi poco conosciuti nell' uomo. a mio avviso, ci servono più 
studi di base prima di pensare ad un uso terapeutico, per capire bene gli 
effetti, le dosi, gli analoghi da usare, soprattutto per evitare di prendere 
cantonate con un approccio troppo superficiale. purtroppo invece la ricerca 
di base è sempre più bistrattata e vengono preferenzialmente finanziati 
filoni di ricerca in cui precocemente si vada in clinica.



Intranasal administration of oxytocin increases envy and schadenfreude 
(gloating).

Shamay-Tsoory SG, Fischer M, Dvash J, Harari H, Perach-Bloom N, Levkovitz Y.

Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Nov 1;66(9):864-70. Epub 2009 Jul 29.

BACKGROUND: Humans have a strong social tendency to compare themselves with 
others. We tend to feel envious when we receive less valuable rewards and 
may rejoice when our payoffs are more advantageous. Envy and schadenfreude 
(gloating over the other's misfortune) are social emotions widely agreed to 
be a symptom of the human social tendency to compare one's payoffs with 
those of others. Given the important social components of envy and gloating, 
we speculated that oxytocin may have a modulating effect on the intensity of 
these emotions. METHODS: Fifty-six participants participated in this 
double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject study. Following the 
administration of oxytocin or a placebo, participants played a game of 
chance with another (fake) participant who either won more money (envy 
manipulation), lost more money (schadenfreude manipulation), or won/lost 
equal amounts of money. RESULTS: In comparison with the placebo, oxytocin 
increased the envy ratings during unequal monetary gain conditions involving 
relative loss (when the participant gained less money than another player). 
Oxytocin also increased the ratings of gloating during relative gain 
conditions (when the participant gained more money than the other player). 
By contrast, oxytocin had no effect on the emotional ratings following equal 
monetary gains nor did it affect general mood ratings. CONCLUSIONS: These 
results suggest that the oxytocinergic system is involved in modulating envy 
and gloating. Thus, contrary to the prevailing belief that this system is 
involved solely in positive prosocial behaviors, it probably plays a key 
role in a wider range of social emotion-related behaviors.