ReviewHormones and behavior2012
Modulating social behavior with oxytocin: how does it work? What does it mean?
Review in Hormones and behavior, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 181 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
181 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Oxytocin levels in individuals with schizophrenia are high in cerebrospinal fluid but low in serum: A systematic review and meta-analysis : Oxytocin and Schizophrenia.Metabolic brain disease · 2021Pooled it
- Neural substrates underlying the effects of oxytocin: a quantitative meta-analysis of pharmaco-imaging studies.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2017Pooled it
- RETRACTED: Effect of intranasal oxytocin administration on psychiatric symptoms: A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled studies.Psychiatry research · 2015Pooled it
- Sniffing around oxytocin: review and meta-analyses of trials in healthy and clinical groups with implications for pharmacotherapy.Translational psychiatry · 2013Pooled it
- Effects of arginine vasopressin on human anxiety and associations with sex, dose, and V1a-receptor genotype.Psychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- DNA methylation changes following narrative exposure therapy in a randomized controlled trial with female former child soldiers.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Oxytocin effects on the resting-state mentalizing brain network.Brain imaging and behavior · 2020Trial
- A registered replication study on oxytocin and trust.Nature human behaviour · 2020Trial
- Intranasal oxytocin, but not vasopressin, augments neural responses to toddlers in human fathers.Hormones and behavior · 2017Trial
- Oxytocin differentially modulates pavlovian cue and context fear acquisition.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2017Trial
- Intranasal oxytocin enhances intrinsic corticostriatal functional connectivity in women.Translational psychiatry · 2017Trial
- Effects of oxytocin and vasopressin on the neural response to unreciprocated cooperation within brain regions involved in stress and anxiety in men and women.Brain imaging and behavior · 2016Trial
- Opposing effects of oxytocin on overt compliance and lasting changes to memory.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2015Trial
- Oxytocin and vasopressin modulate risk-taking.Physiology & behavior · 2015Trial
- Salivary Oxytocin Concentrations in Males following Intranasal Administration of Oxytocin: A Double-Blind, Cross-Over Study.PloS one · 2015Trial
- Vasopressin, but not oxytocin, increases empathic concern among individuals who received higher levels of paternal warmth: A randomized controlled trial.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2015Trial
- Plasma oxytocin changes and anti-obsessive response during serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment: a placebo controlled study.BMC psychiatry · 2013Trial
- Oxytocin enhances brain reward system responses in men viewing the face of their female partner.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2013Trial
- A direct examination of the effect of intranasal administration of oxytocin on approach-avoidance motor responses to emotional stimuli.PloS one · 2013Trial
- Compassion meditation enhances empathic accuracy and related neural activity.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2013Trial
121 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Among its many roles in body and brain, oxytocin influences social behavior. Understanding the precise nature of this influence is crucial, both within the broader theoretical context of neurobiology, social neuroscience and brain evolution, but also within a clinical context of disorders such as anxiety, schizophrenia, and autism. Research exploring oxytocin's role in human social behavior is difficult owing to its release in both body and brain and its interactive effects with other hormones and neuromodulators. Additional difficulties are due to the intricacies of the blood-brain barrier and oxytocin's instability, which creates measurement issues. Questions concerning how to interpret behavioral results of human experiments manipulating oxytocin are thus made all the more pressing. The current paper discusses several such questions. We highlight unresolved fundamental issues about what exactly happens when oxytocin is administered intranasally, whether such oxytocin does in fact reach appropriate receptors in brain, and whether central or peripheral influences account for the observed behavioral effects. We also highlight the deeper conceptual issue of whether the human data should be narrowly interpreted as implicating a specific role for oxytocin in complex social cognition, such a generosity, trust, or mentalizing, or more broadly interpreted as implicating a lower-level general effect on general states and dispositions, such as anxiety and social motivation. Using several influential studies, we show how seemingly specific, higher-level social-cognitive effects can emerge via a process by which oxytocin's broad influence is channeled into a specific social behavior in a context of an appropriate social and research setting. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Oxytocin, Vasopressin, and Social Behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.