Oxytocin (OT) exerts widely modulatory effects on socio-emotional functions in humans, which can be achieved via enhancing the salience of social cues by interacting with the dopaminergic attention system. However, there is a lack of direct evidence for OT modulating attentional processing, with its underlying neural mechanisms remaining to be elucidated.

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, 60 healthy male participants were recruited. We combined pharmaco-electroencephalography with two modified tasks (a cue-target visual search [CTVS] task and a face distractor interference [FDI] task) to investigate whether intranasal OT can modulate attentional processing of social cues in top-down versus bottom-up task sets.

In the CTVS task, OT accelerated participants’ response time to target faces, which was paralleled by a larger N170 and stronger theta power, suggesting that OT promoted early top-down attentional processing of social cues. In the FDI task, OT inhibited the distractive effect of task-irrelevant emotional faces in the first half of the task via facilitating top-down attentional control to targets as reflected by enhanced attentional selection (increased N2pc) and more efficient attentional processing (decreased P300). However, in the second half, OT switched from facilitating top-down attentional control to potentiating bottom-up attentional capture by emotional face distractors, as evidenced by OT reducing response accuracy but having no effects on the N2pc and P300.

Our findings not only provide evidence for the role of OT in modulating attentional processing of social cues but also lend support to its therapeutic potential in normalizing such attentional deficits.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder characterized by emotional dysregulation, impulsive behaviors, and difficulties in interpersonal relationships. Despite the poor understanding of the underlying biological processes, the oxytocin (OXT) system may be involved in and mediate some of BPD’s symptomatic and behavioral aspects. To clarify OXT’s role in BPD, we assessed its plasma levels and modulations induced by psychotherapies in patients.

Fifty BPD patients and 28 healthy controls (HC) participated in the study; patients were randomly assigned to two psychotherapeutic treatments: metacognitive interpersonal therapy and structured clinical management. Clinical and psychometric measures were assessed, and plasma was collected at baseline (T0) and in patients after 6 (T6) and 12 (T12) months of treatment. OXT was quantified by a radioimmunoassay technique.

BPD patients showed lower plasma OXT at T0 than HC (p = 0.002), and a correlation was observed (r = −0.36, p = 0.017) between low OXT concentrations and high Attachment Style Questionnaire – Italian Version–Preoccupation with Relationships subscale scores. OXT changed significantly over time in patients (p = 0.049) with an increase particularly evident from baseline to T6 (p = 0.022), without significant difference between treatment groups. OXT changes (T0 − T12) inversely correlated with symptom improvement as changes in the Zanarini Rating Scale for borderline personality disorder (r = 0.387, p = 0.006) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (r = 0.387, p = 0.005) scores during treatment.

OXT alteration in BPD patients and the regularizing effect of long-term psychotherapies support an involvement of the OXT system in the disease and in treatment impact. More research is needed to fully understand the underlying causal mechanisms linking OXT with pathogenesis and psychotherapy outcomes.

Childhood trauma has been linked to increased risk of schizophrenia and social dysfunction, and oxytocin and its receptor gene have been implicated in regulating social behavior. This study investigated the potential role of oxytocin and oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) in mediating the effects of childhood trauma on social functioning in schizophrenia.

The study consisted of 382 patients with schizophrenia and 178 healthy controls who were assessed using the Taiwanese version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), the Social Functioning Scale (SFS), and plasma oxytocin levels. DNA was extracted to genotype the OXTR and ten single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs2254298, rs237885, rs237887, rs237899, rs53576, rs9840864, rs13316193, rs7632287, rs1042778, and rs237895) were selected.

Patients with schizophrenia showed higher CTQ-SF scores (t = 12.549, p < 0.001), lower SFS scores (t = −46.951, p < 0.001), and lower plasma oxytocin levels (t = −5.448, p < 0.001) compared to healthy controls. The study also found significant differences in OXTR SNPs between both groups, with risk alleles being more prevalent in patients with schizophrenia (t = 2.734, p = 0.006). Results indicated a significant moderated mediation effect, with oxytocin and the OXTR SNPs partially mediating the relationship between childhood trauma exposure and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia (index of mediation = 0.038, 95% CI [0.033–0.044]).

The findings suggest that oxytocin and its receptor gene may be promising targets for interventions aimed at improving social functioning in patients with a history of childhood trauma and schizophrenia. However, further research is needed to fully understand these effects and the potential of oxytocin-based interventions in this population.

Conventional pharmacological approaches have limited effectiveness for schizophrenia. There is interest in the application of oxytocin, which is involved in social cognition. Clinical trials have yielded mixed results, with a gap in understanding neural mechanisms.

To evaluate the behavioural impact of oxytocin administration on a social learning task in individuals with schizophrenia, and elucidate any differential neural activity produced.

We recruited 20 clinically stable right-handed men diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. In a double-blind cross-over randomised controlled study, 40 IU of oxytocin or placebo were administered before functional magnetic resonance imaging of participants playing a multi-round economic exchange game of trust. Participants had the role of investors (investment trials) receiving repayment on their investments (repayment trials), playing one session against a computer and a second against a player believed to be human.

During investment trials, oxytocin increased neural signalling in the right lateral parietal cortex for both human and computer player trials, and attenuated signalling in the right insula for human player trials. For repayment trials, oxytocin elicited signal increases in left insula and left ventral caudate, and a signal decrease in right amygdala during the human player trials; conversely it resulted in right dorsal caudate activation during the computer player trials. We did not find a significant change in behavioural performance associated with oxytocin administration, or any associations with symptoms.

During a social learning task oxytocin modulates cortical and limbic substrates of the reward-processing network. These perturbations can be putatively linked to the pathoaetiology of schizophrenia.

Opioid system activity was found disturbed in several reward circuit areas in restrictive anorexia nervosa (AN) patients but also at the pituitary level. The role of this specific abnormality in AN physiopathology remains unknown.O

We aimed to evaluate the relationship of upper mentioned AN abnormality with its classical pituitary features and eating behavior traits.

PET [11C] diprenorphin binding potential (BPND) were processed for each pituitary part in three groups of young women: 12 AN, 11 recovered AN patients (ANrec), and 12 Controls. Anterior pituitary hormones and neurohypophysis (NH) 12 points circadian profile including copeptin and oxytocin, psychological scores were evaluated in these subjects as well as in 13 bulimic (BN) patients.

[11C] diprenorphin pituitary binding was found to be fully localized in NH. Only AN patients’ NH present lower [11C] diprenorphin BPND than Controls, interpreted as a higher opioid tone. Both AN and ANrec show lower copeptin/24h than in Controls but no difference in oxytocin. BN showed increased copeptin and low oxytocin. In AN patients copeptin inversely correlate with Restrained Eating while oxytocin correlate with the External Eating score. NH [11C] diprenorphin BPND correlated with leptin but not with copeptin or oxytocin.

Neurohypopysis opioid tone in anorexia nervosa seem not to impact the vasopressin or oxytocin release but still may interfere in gonadal axis regulation. Copeptin, a good indicator of hydration state, may be a good tool to detect hidden restrictive or purging behaviors. Specific correlates with AN psychologic features still suggest a physiopathological involvement.

No significant relationships.