A recent neuroimaging study found that administration of oxytocin reduced amygdala activity in patients with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), approaching levels observed in healthy individuals. The results of this study suggest that oxytocin may mitigate the heightened amygdala response to anger in her ASPD patients.
This research neuropsychopharmacology.
Oxytocin is a hormone and neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain. It plays an important role in a variety of physiological and behavioral processes such as childbirth, lactation, mother-infant bonding, sexual activity, and the emotional bond between individuals. In recent years, oxytocin has also attracted attention for its potential role in regulating social behavior and emotions in individuals with various psychiatric disorders.
A new study aimed to investigate the effects of a single intranasal dose of oxytocin on amygdala reactivity to emotional facial expressions in patients with ASPD compared with healthy control participants. The study employed a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled within-subjects design.
“Originally, we were interested in the neurobiological processes underlying aggression in antisocial personality disorder,” said study author Han Jun-Maas, attending physician and postdoctoral fellow at Bielefeld University. said.
“Aggression is a hallmark of ASPD and can endanger others or imprison oneself. We wanted to test whether the function is regulated by oxytocin.”
“Previous research has been based primarily on examining children with behavioral problems and male research participants who are incarcerated for psychopathy. There is very little research on women with ASPD. We aimed to reveal similarities and differences in brain function between ASPD women and men, as well as between healthy women and men.”
Participants consisted of 20 males and 18 females diagnosed with ASPD and 20 males and 20 females who were healthy control participants. The age group of participants ranged from 18 to 30 years old. ASPD participants were recruited from the general psychiatric department of Heidelberg University Hospital, local probation services, and institutions providing counter-aggression training. Control participants were selected to match the age and IQ of the ASPD group.
The study included two experimental assessments scheduled 4 weeks apart, during which functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed to measure brain activity. In the fMRI task, participants were instructed to classify various human facial emotions as accurately and quickly as possible by pressing corresponding buttons. Participants were required to classify 72 short presentations of faces representing angry, fearful, and happy expressions. Faces were presented in randomized order, with equal numbers of male and female faces shown for each expression.
The researchers found that ASPD patients displayed faster responses to angry faces and displayed different patterns of amygdala activation compared to healthy controls in the placebo condition. Administration of oxytocin appears to modulate amygdala activation differently in ASPD patients and healthy controls. Administration of oxytocin to ASPD patients reduced amygdala activity.
Indeed, amygdala activity in ASPD patients receiving oxytocin was similar to that observed in the amygdala of healthy individuals receiving placebo. This suggests that oxytocin may reduce the hyperreactivity of the amygdala to angry faces in her ASPD patients.
“Oxytocin has become known as the ‘love hormone’ or ‘cuddle chemical’ because it is released during social bonding,” Jeung-Maarse told PsyPost. “This is the first recognition of its role in the birth process and lactating mothers. However, it may also affect individuals differently depending on their mental state and gender. Amygdala activity in response to angry faces in ASPD. We found that in healthy people the opposite was true, whereas in healthy people the effect was more severe.”
“Fundamentally, we found a higher amygdala response to angry faces in ASPD. (“fear blindness”). Our findings are surprising because psychopathy has been discussed as a subtype of his ASPD. ”
The study included the largest sample of ASPD patients in the field of fMRI research, researchers said. “I am still amazed that we were able to include complete data from 38 ASPD patients,” said Jeung-Maarse.
However, there were some limitations. This study did not include a clinical control group. This means that there was no group of individuals with different clinical disorders to compare against. It is important to note that a significant portion of his ASPD sample in this study also met criteria for psychopathy. However, due to the small number of participants in the correlation analysis (only 9 of his 20 ASPD participants male and 7 of his 18 ASPD participants female), the researchers concluded from these analyses. was careful in deriving
ASPD is a recognized mental disorder characterized by consistent disregard for the rights of others. People with ASPD often exhibit behaviors such as deceitfulness, impulsivity, and lack of empathy or remorse. Psychopathy, on the other hand, is a set of personality traits associated with antisocial behavior. This is not a formal diagnosis but is assessed using specialized tools such as the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R). Not everyone with ASPD is a psychopath, and not every psychopath meets her ASPD diagnostic criteria.
“We did not include a clinical control group and could not distinguish between psychopathic and non-psychopathic individuals with ASPD,” Jeung-Maarse said. “It would be interesting to investigate subgroups of ASPD.”
the study, “Effects of oxytocin on amygdala reactivity to angry faces in men and women with antisocial personality disorderwas written by Haang Jeung-Maarse, Mike M. Schmittgen, Ruth Schmitt, Katja Bertsch, and Sabine C. Herpertz.
