Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32388538›Full record

Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020

Serotonin differentially modulates the temporal dynamics of the limbic response to facial emotions in male adults with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a randomised placebo-controlled single-dose crossover trial.

Nichol M L Wong, James L Findon, Robert H Wichers, Vincent Giampietro, Vladimira Stoencheva, Clodagh M Murphy, Sarah Blainey, Christine Ecker, Declan G Murphy, Grainne M McAlonan and 1 more

Open access · hybridAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 31% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Nichol M L WongDepartment of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. nichol.wong@kcl.ac.uk.
James L Findon *Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Robert H Wichers *Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6630-8038
Vincent GiampietroDepartment of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9381-8201
Vladimira StoenchevaDepartment of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Clodagh M MurphyDepartment of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6350-0155
Sarah BlaineyDepartment of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Christine EckerDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany.
Declan G Murphy *Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6664-7451
Grainne M McAlonan *Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Eileen Daly *Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
King's College London · GBGoethe University Frankfurt · DE

Funding

Department of Health
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Emotion processing-including signals from facial expressions-is often altered in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The biological basis of this is poorly understood but may include neurochemically mediated differences in the responsivity of key 'limbic' regions (including amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc)). Emerging evidence also suggests that ASD may be a disorder of brain temporal dynamics. Moreover, serotonin (5-HT) has been shown to be a key regulator of both facial-emotion processing and brain dynamics, and 5-HT abnormalities have been consistently implicated in ASD. To date, however, no one has examined how 5-HT influences the dynamics of facial-emotion processing in ASD. Therefore, we compared the influence of 5-HT on the responsivity of brain dynamics during facial-emotion processing in individuals with and without ASD. Participants completed a facial-emotion processing fMRI task at least 8 days apart using a randomised double-blind crossover design. At each visit they received either a single 20-mg oral dose of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram or placebo. We found that citalopram (which increases levels of 5-HT) caused sustained activation in key limbic regions during processing of negative facial emotions in adults with ASD-but not in neurotypical adults. The neurotypical adults' limbic response reverted more rapidly to baseline following a 5-HT-challenge. Our results suggest that serotonergic homoeostatic control of the temporal dynamics in limbic regions is altered in adults with ASD, and provide a fresh perspective on the biology of ASD.

Indexed as

Autism Spectrum DisorderSerotoninAdultCross-Over StudiesEmotionsFacial ExpressionHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleSerotonin

Identifiers

PMID32388538
PMCPMC7784897
OpenAlexW3022341008

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.