Oxytocin and the Processing of Social Stress-Associated Chemosignals

University Hospital Bonn (UKB)

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Healthy Volunteers

Treatments: Drug: Oxytocin; Drug: Placebo

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03265899

OXT_OLF_2017

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether oxytocin modulates the processing of stress-associated chemosignals and which substrates are involved.

Full description

Social transmission of stress and fear is not restricted to visual or auditory cues, but extends to the olfactory domain, a phylogenetically more ancient sense. Exposure to axillary sweat from healthy volunteers undergoing an emotional stressor task evokes a strong vicarious stress response on the behavioral and neural level.Particularly, anxious individuals have been shown to exhibit a heightened sensitivity to social chemosensory stress cues (axillary sweat). The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) exerts anxiolytic and anti-stress effects in visual and auditory modalities, however, it still elusive whether OXT also modulates the processing of stress-associated chemosignals. Axillary sweat were obtained from an unrelated sample of 30 healthy men undergoing the Trier Social Stress Test and ergometer training as control.Subsequently, subjects completed a forced-choice emotional face recognition task composed of stimuli with varying intensities (neutral to fearful), while they were exposed to both sweat stimuli and a non-social control odor (raspberry) after OXT or placebo administration, respectively. The investigators expect that OXT selectively diminishes chemosensory-induced behavioral biases and neural responses to stress-related odors.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 40 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy volunteers
• Right-handed

Exclusion criteria

• Current or past psychiatric disease
• Current or past physical illness
• Psychoactive medication
• Tobacco smokers
• MRI contraindications (e.g. metal in body, claustrophobia)
• Anosmia
• Medication known to interfere with olfactory processing

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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60 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Oxytocin

Experimental group

Description:

40 IU Oxytocin, intranasal application 30 min prior to the experiment

Treatment:

Drug: Oxytocin

Placebo

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

sodium chloride solution, intranasal application 30 min prior to the experiment

Treatment:

Drug: Placebo