ossitocina: prime sperimentazioni
Ci sono diversi gruppi nel mondo che studiano gli effetti prosociali dell’ossitocina nell’autismo. A Sydney Guastella e colleghi hanno studiato l’effetto della somministrazione intranasale di ossitocina su un test di laboratorio, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task, in giovani maschi con autismo o Asperger di età dai 12 ai 19 anni, documentando un miglioramento nell’esecuzione del test superiore che con il placebo. Non è ancora un uso terapeutico, in quanto esamina solo la performance ad un test di laboratorio, ma potrebbe essere un primo passo in questa direzione. Ecco l’abstract del lavoro da poco pubblicato su Biological Psychiatry Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Nov 6. [Epub ahead of print] Intranasal Oxytocin Improves Emotion Recognition for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Guastella AJ, Einfeld SL, Gray KM, Rinehart NJ, Tonge BJ, Lambert TJ, Hickie IB. Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney. BACKGROUND: A diagnostic hallmark of autism spectrum disorders is a qualitative impairment in social communication and interaction. Deficits in the ability to recognize the emotions of others are believed to contribute to this. There is currently no effective treatment for these problems. METHODS: In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover design, we administered oxytocin nasal spray (18 or 24 IU) or a placebo to 16 male youth aged 12 to 19 who were diagnosed with Autistic or Asperger's Disorder. Participants then completed the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task, a widely used and reliable test of emotion recognition. RESULTS: In comparison with placebo, oxytocin administration improved performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task. This effect was also shown when analysis was restricted to the younger participants aged 12 to 15 who received the lower dose. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence that oxytocin nasal spray improves emotion recognition in young people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Findings suggest the potential of earlier intervention and further evaluation of oxytocin nasal spray as a treatment to improve social communication and interaction in young people with autism spectrum disorders. PMID: 19897177 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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.
participants (2)
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Bice Chini -
daniela marianicerati