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 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 [...]
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 [...]
Exciting news came this weekend with the announcement of the strongest research findings yet linking oxytocin nasal spray and the relief of autistic symptoms. After receiving oxytocin via nasal spray, a group of autistic patients become more social and open, according to Elissar Andri, of the French government center for neuroscience research. Scientists have found [...]
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 [...]
In an article posted in February for the esteemed science journal ‘Nature’, Dr Larry Young, an expert on the effects of oxytocin on the brain wrote the following : Experiments have shown that a nasal squirt of oxytocin enhances trust and tunes people into others’ emotions….Internet entrepreneurs are already marketing products such as Enhanced Liquid [...]
Many studies have been published recently linking oxytocin to social behaviours such as trust, altruism, and even sexual attractiveness. Now, researchers at an Israeli university have identified a link between such behaviours and a specific variation in a person’s DNA that acts as a brain receptor for oxytocin. The Hebrew University researchers evaluated altruism using a game that included [...]
A new study, published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, suggests that Oxytocin may help make it easier for couples to discuss difficult issues. The couples who took part in the Swiss based study were given oxytocin nasal spray or a placebo spray before having a ‘conflict discussion’ in the laboratory. Those couples who had [...]
A new oxytocin study, a new discovery as to the effects of the ‘Love Hormone’ on human behaviour. A team of British researchers based have confirmed that a person who has inhaled a whiff of oxytocin will find people more sexually attractive. According to Angeliki Theodoridou, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, after inhaling [...]
