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Oxytocin’s neurochemical effects in the medial prefrontal cortex underlie recovery of task-specific brain activity in autism: a randomized controlled trial
- Source :
- Molecular Psychiatry
- Publication Year :
- 2014
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2014.
-
Abstract
- The neuropeptide oxytocin may be an effective therapeutic strategy for the currently untreatable social and communication deficits associated with autism. Our recent paper reported that oxytocin mitigated autistic behavioral deficits through the restoration of activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), as demonstrated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a socio-communication task. However, it is unknown whether oxytocin exhibited effects at the neuronal level, which was outside of the specific task examined. In the same randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject cross-over clinical trial in which a single dose of intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) was administered to 40 men with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (UMIN000002241/000004393), we measured N-acetylaspartate (NAA) levels, a marker for neuronal energy demand, in the vmPFC using (1)H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS). The differences in the NAA levels between the oxytocin and placebo sessions were associated with oxytocin-induced fMRI signal changes in the vmPFC. The oxytocin-induced increases in the fMRI signal could be predicted by the NAA differences between the oxytocin and placebo sessions (P=0.002), an effect that remained after controlling for variability in the time between the fMRI and (1)H-MRS scans (P=0.006) and the order of administration of oxytocin and placebo (P=0.001). Furthermore, path analysis showed that the NAA differences in the vmPFC triggered increases in the task-dependent fMRI signals in the vmPFC, which consequently led to improvements in the socio-communication difficulties associated with autism. The present study suggests that the beneficial effects of oxytocin are not limited to the autistic behavior elicited by our psychological task, but may generalize to other autistic behavioral problems associated with the vmPFC.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Time Factors
Brain activity and meditation
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal Cortex
Oxytocin
Young Adult
Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Neurochemical
Double-Blind Method
Oxytocics
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
medicine
Humans
Autistic Disorder
Prefrontal cortex
Molecular Biology
Administration, Intranasal
Retrospective Studies
Aspartic Acid
medicine.diagnostic_test
Recovery of Function
medicine.disease
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Oxygen
Psychiatry and Mental health
medicine.anatomical_structure
nervous system
Autism spectrum disorder
Autism
Female
Original Article
Protons
Psychology
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Neuroscience
hormones, hormone substitutes, and hormone antagonists
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14765578 and 13594184
- Volume :
- 20
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Molecular Psychiatry
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b23445224dc24fcd46bcd605982ed733