Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37185959›Full record

ArticleMolecular psychiatry2023

Sniffing oxytocin: Nose to brain or nose to blood?

Shuxia Yao, Yuanshu Chen, Qian Zhuang, Yingying Zhang, Chunmei Lan, Siyu Zhu, Benjamin Becker, Keith M Kendrick

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
19citing papers in PubMed
11.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% 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

19 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Post-encoding administration of oxytocin selectively enhances memory consolidation of male faces in females.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Trial
  5. Effects of intranasal oxytocin on fear extinction learning.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025
    Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Review
  10. Navigating Central Oxytocin Transport: Known Realms and Uncharted Territories.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2025
    Review
  11. How does oxytocin modulate human behavior?Molecular psychiatry · 2025
    Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Long range projections of oxytocin neurons in the marmoset brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024
    Article
  18. Review
  19. 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

8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Shuxia YaoCenter of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. yaoshuxia@uestc.edu.cn.ORCID 0000-0002-5259-6374
Yuanshu ChenCenter of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Qian ZhuangCenter of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.ORCID 0000-0002-6923-8792
Yingying ZhangDepartment of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
Chunmei LanCenter of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.ORCID 0000-0002-6466-1217
Siyu ZhuCenter of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.ORCID 0000-0002-5851-742X
Benjamin BeckerCenter of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.ORCID 0000-0002-9014-9671
Keith M KendrickCenter of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. k.kendrick.uestc@gmail.com.ORCID 0000-0002-0371-5904
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China · CNUniversität Ulm · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In recent years ample studies have reported that intranasal administration of the neuropeptide oxytocin can facilitate social motivation and cognition in healthy and clinical populations. However, it is still unclear how effects are mediated since intranasally administered oxytocin can both directly enter the brain (nose to brain) and increase peripheral vascular concentrations (nose to blood). The relative functional contributions of these routes are not established and have received insufficient attention in the field. The current study used vasoconstrictor pretreatment to prevent intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) from increasing peripheral concentrations and measured effects on both resting-state neural (electroencephalography) and physiological responses (electrocardiogram, electrogastrogram and skin conductance). Results demonstrated that intranasal oxytocin alone produced robust and widespread increases of delta-beta cross-frequency coupling (CFC) from 30 min post-treatment but did not influence peripheral physiological measures. As predicted, vasoconstrictor pretreatment greatly reduced the normal increase in peripheral oxytocin concentrations and, importantly, abolished the majority of intranasal oxytocin effects on delta-beta CFC. Furthermore, time-dependent positive correlations were found between increases in plasma oxytocin concentrations and corresponding increases in delta-beta CFC following oxytocin treatment alone. Our findings suggest a critical role of peripheral vasculature-mediated routes on neural effects of exogenous oxytocin administration with important translational implications for its use as an intervention in psychiatric disorders.

Indexed as

NoseOxytocinAdministration, IntranasalBrainDouble-Blind MethodHumansVasoconstrictor AgentsOxytocinVasoconstrictor Agents

Identifiers

PMID37185959
PMCPMC10615745
OpenAlexW4366986394

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.