As scientists take an ever more closer interest into the workings and effects of oxytocin, it was inevitable that a ‘darker side’ of the supposed love hormone would emerge. A new study appears to have confirmed earlier research which suggested that oxytocin might increase the ‘in-group/out-group’ mentality. This time, the researchers looked at the effect that [...]
Oxytocin has been long known to be associated with female psychology, particularly with regard to the reproduction processes – such as giving birth or having sex. Now it seems that oxytocin could be linked to female happiness per se. A graduate researcher in America studied the oxytocin levels of women before and after they were given $24 [...]
Oxytocin nasal spray may even eventually be used to treat depression, after researchers at the Medical School of South Carolina discovered that when depressed subjects inhaled the spray, their brain activity began to resemble that of normal volunteers. Oxytocin, a hormone which is produced by breast-feeding mothers and by both genders during sexual activity, could [...]
Oxytocin spray could be used to treat people with shyness, autism, and other social functioning deficits according to a new study. Researchers from Israel and New York gave a group of 27 healthy men doses of oxytocin nasal spray and then asked them to peform ‘emphatic accuracy tests’. Those men who were shy or who had [...]
A Belgian study into the effects of oxytocin appear to indicate that concerns over the potential for politicians and buisnesses to exploit the trusting properties of the hormone may be overstated. The team, working from the Catholic University of Louvain, appear to have demonstrated that oxytocin increases trust without increasing outright gullibility. In other words, [...]
Paul Zak, a university professor and popular ‘neuroeconominist’, has claimed to have found that oxytocin levels are raised by using social networking sites such as Twitter – just as they are in real face-to-face relationships. The experiment was performed on one person only, but if accepted does appear to have implications both for understanding how oxytocin is triggered [...]
Whilst the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin has been well documented to promote bonding and trust between people, a new study suggests that it may also play a role in the ‘in-group/out-group’ mentality that reaches it’s sharpest focus on the battle field. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have found that volunteers given oxytocin nasal spray bonded [...]
In February, researchers in France reported that patients with high-functioning autism (asperger’s syndrome) were better able to interact socially when given doses of oxytocin nasal spray. Now a second study has appeared to confirm that treating autistic patients with oxytocin hormone can help to alleviate their symptoms. Evdokia Anagnostou, a child neurologist working in Canada, [...]
The Daily Mail reports that researchers are using oxytocin nasal spray to treat women with interstitial cystitis, or chronic inflammation of the bladder wall. The trial is based on the observation that breast feeding women (who have naturally raised levels of oxytocin) often have cystitis symptoms reduced. Those behind the trial at the University of Alabama believe [...]
A new study hasfound that participants with Asperger’s Syndrome (high functioning autism) who were given an oxytocin injection were better able to interpret facial expressions and had more memories of people’s emotional states than those taking a placebo . Eric Hollander, who led the research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, believes [...]
