Effect of Oral Oxytocin on Women's Response to Emotional Stimuli

Effect of Oral Oxytocin of Brain and Behavioral Responses to Emotional Stimuli in Healthy Women

The main aim of the study is to investigate whether orally administered oxytocin (24IU) could modulate females' neural and behavioral responses to affective stimuli including emotional faces and affective scenes.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Oral Oxytocin; Drug: Oral Placebo

Detailed Description

All subjects will complete a series of questionnaires firstly to control for possible pre-treatment confounders in terms of personality traits and mood: Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI), Autism Spectrum Quotient (ASQ), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Second Version of Social Responsiveness Scale(SRS-2), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). PANAS is administered before and after oral administration and after functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. In the current double-blind, between-subject, placebo-controlled study 80 healthy female subjects will be recruited and receive oral administration either oxytocin (24IU) or placebo. Blood samples are collected twice before and 30 minutes after oral administration to assess the plasma OXT concentrations change. 45 minutes after oral administration subjects will be required to finish fMRI scanning including resting-state fMRI task, emotional face task (happy, fear, angry and neutral faces), affective scene task (NAPS, Nencki affective picture system, positive, neutral, and negative-valence scenes). After fMRI scanning, subjects will be required to rate valence, intensity, and arousal responses (Likert scale, 1-9 ratings) to the emotional and affective stimuli are presented during fMRI scanning.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Sichuan
    • Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 611731
      • Recruiting
      • School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 30 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy subjects without any past or present psychiatric or neurological disorders

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of brain injury
• Head trauma
• Substance abuse
• Medication
• fMRI contraindications (e.g. metal implants)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Oral Oxytocin; Oxytocin orally (24 IU)	Drug: Oral Oxytocin; Administration of oxytocin (24 international units) orally; Other Names: Oxytocin Orally
Placebo Comparator: Oral Placebo; Placebo orally (identical ingredients, except the active agent)	Drug: Oral Placebo; Administration of placebo orally; Other Names: Placebo Orally

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in blood oxytocin concentrations after oral oxytocin	Changes in blood oxytocin concentrations will be assessed across two groups between baseline and 30 minutes after oral treatment administration.	Before and 30 minutes after treatment
Effects of oral oxytocin on neural responses to emotional faces assessed by emotional faces processing task fMRI	Comparison of neural activations between oral administration of oxytocin and placebo by means of treatment (oxytocin, placebo)× faces(happy, neutral, angry, fear) ANOVA and emotional face-specific post-hoc comparisons between the treatment groups.	45 minutes after treatment
Effects of oral oxytocin on neural responses to affective scenes assessed by affective scenes processing task fMRI	Comparison of neural activations as assessed by functional MRI on the whole-brain level between oral oxytocin and placebo by means of treatment (oxytocin, placebo) × scenes(neutral, positive, negative) ANOVA and scene-specific post-hoc comparisons between the treatment groups.	45 minutes after treatment
Effects of oral oxytocin on behavioral ratings of emotional faces stimuli	Differences in behavioral ratings of valence(1-9-point Likert scale, 1 means very negative,9 means very positive, 5 means neutral), intensity (1-9-point Likert scale, 1 means mild, 9 means strong), and arousal(1-9-point Likert scale, 1 means sleepy, 9 means alert) for emotional faces stimuli between oxytocin group and placebo group.	45 minutes after treatment
Effects of oral oxytocin on behavioral ratings of affective scenes stimuli	Differences in behavioral ratings of valence(1-9-point Likert scale, 1 means very negative,9 means very positive, 5 means neutral), intensity (1-9-point Likert scale, 1 means mild, 9 means strong), and arousal(1-9-point Likert scale, 1 means sleepy, 9 means alert) of affective scenes stimuli between oxytocin group and placebo group.	45 minutes after treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The relationship between plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and neural responses to emotional faces stimuli	Correlation analysis between oral oxytocin-induced plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and oral oxytocin-induced neural responses/functional connectivity changes of emotional faces will be explored across two treatment groups.	Before treatment to 150 minutes after treatment
The relationship between plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and neural responses to affective scenes stimuli	Correlation analysis between oral oxytocin-induced plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and oral oxytocin-induced neural responses/functional connectivity changes of affective scenes stimuli will be explored across two treatment groups.	Before treatment to 150 minutes after treatment
The relationship between plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and behavioral responses to emotional faces stimuli	Correlation analysis between plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and post-scan behavioral ratings of emotional faces stimuli will be explored across two treatment groups.	Before treatment to 150 minutes after treatment
The relationship between plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and behavioral responses to affective scenes stimuli	Correlation analysis between oral oxytocin-induced plasma oxytocin concentrations changes and post-scan behavioral ratings of affective scenes stimuli will be explored across two treatment groups.	Before treatment to 150 minutes after treatment
Gender differences in plasma oxytocin concentrations changes	Gender differences (male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) in oral oxytocin-induced plasma oxytocin concentrations changes will be investigated.	Before and 30 minutes after treatment
Gender differences in neural response to emotional faces stimuli	Gender differences (male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) in oral oxytocin-induced neural responses/functional connectivity to emotional faces stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment
Gender differences in neural response to affective scenes stimuli	Gender differences (male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) in oral oxytocin-induced neural responses/functional connectivity to affective scenes stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment
Gender differences in behavioral responses to emotional faces stimuli	Gender differences (male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) in oral oxytocin-induced post-scan behavioral responses to emotional faces stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment
Gender differences in behavioral responses to affective scenes stimuli	Gender differences (male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) in oral oxytocin-induced post-scan behavioral responses to affective scenes stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment
Interaction effect between gender and treatment on plasma oxytocin concentrations changes	The interaction effect between gender(male/female, male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) and treatment(OXT/PLC) on plasma oxytocin concentrations changes will be investigated.	Before and 30 minutes after treatment
Interaction effect between gender and treatment on neural response to emotional faces stimuli	The interaction effect between gender(male/female, male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) and treatment(OXT/PLC) on neural response/functional connectivity to emotional faces stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment
Interaction effect between gender and treatment on neural response to affective scenes stimuli	The interaction effect between gender(male/female, male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) and treatment(OXT/PLC) on neural response/functional connectivity to affective scenes stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment
Interaction effect between gender and treatment on behavioral responses to emotional faces stimuli	The interaction effect between gender(male/female, male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) and treatment(OXT/PLC) on post-scan behavioral ratings of emotional faces stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment
Interaction effect between gender and treatment on behavioral responses to affective scenes stimuli	The interaction effect between gender(male/female, male's data from ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04320706) and treatment(OXT/PLC) on post-scan behavioral ratings of affective scenes stimuli will be investigated.	45 minutes after treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): November 30, 2021
• Study Completion (Anticipated): January 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 18, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 11, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): October 12, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 21, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 19, 2021
• Last Verified: October 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Anxiety; Reward; Oral Oxytocin; Emotional processing
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Physiological Effects of Drugs; Reproductive Control Agents; Oxytocics; Oxytocin
• Other Study ID Numbers: UESTC-neuSCAN-84

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No