The role of endogenous oxytocin in adult psychosocial adjustment: main effects and interactions with serotonergic and dopaminergic modulators of social cognition

内源性催产素在成人心理社会调整中的作用：主要作用以及与社会认知的血清素能和多巴胺能调节剂的相互作用

基本信息

批准号：
8875888
负责人：
Nancy Koven
金额：
$ 29.94万
依托单位：
BATES COLLEGE
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2015
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2015-09-15 至 2019-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Oxytocin is a neuroendocrine peptide originally known for its role in mating and reproduction and more recently popularized among scientific and lay audiences for its seemingly broad-reaching effects on social cognition. Often touted as the "love hormone", oxytocin influences how we attend to, process, and respond to emotionally- and socially-relevant stimuli, which, in turn, affects how we cooperate, trust, and communicate with others. It is therefore not surprising that clinicians have begun administering pharmaceutical oxytocin to patients with certain psychiatric disturbances, including autism, schizophrenia, and depression, with the goal to improve their emotional well-being and quality of social relationships. The fact that exogenous oxytocin shows therapeutic effects for such individuals may, however, give a false impression that oxytocin is universally beneficial for the general population. Indeed, there is an emerging literature to suggest that oxytocin administration can worsen psychosocial adjustment in healthy adults, which has led to the speculation that high oxytocin levels promote a maladaptive hypersensitivity in individuals who are already emotionally attuned. Such differential outcomes may reflect pre-existing, inter-individual differences in the endogenous oxytocin system and/or presence of trait-like contextual factors that moderate the behavioral effects of oxytocin. However, we know little about the psychosocial correlates of naturally-occurring oxytocin levels or how such levels might fluctuate across adulthood or as a function of sex. Similarly, we know little about the degree and nature of influence of other neurotransmitter systems (e.g., dopamine and serotonin) that interact with oxytocin and exert their own effects on social cognition. To address these critical gaps in knowledge, this research will use peripheral biomarker assay, neuropsychological assessment, and behavioral testing in a healthy community sample (N = 240, ages 20-80) to achieve four principle goals: (1) to characterize clinically-relevant patterns of psychosocial adjustment associated with endogenous oxytocin levels, (2) to map the developmental trajectory of oxytocin-dependent changes in psychosocial adjustment across stages of adulthood, (3) to test the moderating influence of specific cognitive and affective traits on oxytocin-mediated social cognitive processes, and (4) to validate 2-D liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry as an ultra-sensitive technique for quantifying oxytocin level in human saliva. This new knowledge will aid our understanding of how oxytocin influences resilience toward psychosocial distress and provide much needed biomarker norms to assist practitioners in the optimization of oxytocin manipulation.

描述（由申请人提供）：催产素是一种神经内分泌肽，最初因其在交配和繁殖中的作用而闻名，最近因其对社会认知的看似广泛的影响而受到科学界和非专业人士的欢迎，通常被吹捧为“爱情激素”。催产素影响我们如何关注、处理和回应情感和社交相关的刺激，这反过来又影响我们如何与他人合作、信任和沟通，因此，竞争者有这样的结果并不奇怪。开始对患有某些精神疾病（包括自闭症、精神分裂症和抑郁症）的患者使用药物催产素，目的是改善他们的情绪健康和社会关系质量，然而，外源性催产素对这些人显示出治疗效果的事实可能是。给人一种错误的印象，认为催产素对普通人群普遍有益。事实上，有一些新兴文献表明，使用催产素可能会恶化健康成年人的心理社会调节，这引发了人们对高催产素的猜测。这种不同的结果可能反映了内源性催产素系统中预先存在的个体间差异和/或调节催产素行为影响的特征样背景因素的存在。我们对自然产生的催产素水平的心理社会相关性或这种水平在成年期如何波动或作为性别的函数知之甚少，同样，我们对催产素水平和性质也知之甚少。与催产素相互作用并对社会认知产生影响的其他神经递质系统（例如多巴胺和血清素）的影响为了解决这些关键的知识差距，本研究将在健康人群中使用外周生物标志物测定、神经心理学评估和行为测试。社区样本（N = 240，年龄 20-80）以实现四个主要目标：（1）表征与内源性催产素水平相关的心理社会调整的临床相关模式， (2) 绘制成年各阶段心理社会调整中催产素依赖性变化的发展轨迹，(3) 测试特定认知和情感特征对催产素介导的社会认知过程的调节影响，以及 (4) 验证 2 -D 液相色谱-串联质谱法作为一种超灵敏技术，用于量化人类唾液中催产素的水平，这一新知识将有助于我们了解催产素如何影响社会心理困扰的恢复力，并为我们提供急需的生物标志物标准。协助医生优化催产素操作。