This was kind of a fun one. Of course it was coming from an intervention/curbie perspective, but in terms of the scientific research involved it was one of the more innovative ideas reaching into autism stuff that I've read since reading an article on mirror neurons. Any thoughts? Only thing coming to mind is a short term influence chemical therapy is a much more positive thing than electroshock, chelation IV, ABA, or genetic screening/genocide.
Scientific American article on Theory of Mind treatment possibility
The crazy thing about it is they seem to have no idea why it works!
I always love it when scientists discover things that completely baffle them.
Ah, oxytocin! I did a research project on oxytocin last year looking at the effects in oxytocin injections on anxiety behaviour in rats. It was part of a whole array of projects, looking at rats, such as depression behaviours, and types of aministration. Giving straight to the brain works best for both anxiety and depression, we found (because oxytocin is blocked by the blood brain barrier). This year that lab is looking at blacking oxytocin receptors when giving ecstacy, because the hypothesis is that the 'i love everybody' feelings it gives is because of oxytocin receptor stimulation. I am most interested in the oxytocin receptors in the amygdala.
I'm more interested in their role in mood disorders and anxiety, and now I'm finding it funny that so much of this is also being implicated in autism. But also keep in mind that this study that the article is talking about has been done in neurotypicals. What you might find, if you try this in autictic people, there may not be just a clear relationship (between oxytocin and theory of mind). For example, social skills and amygdala size is correlated in neurotypicals, but not in people with AS. Hmmmm....
But oxytocin has been named the 'trust' hormone. Well, after its known role in smooth muscle contraction in the milk ducts and the uterus. So that was an interesting article, thanks for posting.
And I thought having children just made me more determined to do the social thing .... apparently giving birth and nursing pumped up my natural social drugs. That certainly explains some things.
The article was interesting and it also had a link to something called 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test. This seems to be the Simon Baron-Cohen test that people have mentioned before. I did the test myself once, but took it again and got 18 out of 36, which is a little below average, apparently.
I will put the link here
http://www.questionwriter.com/samples/eyesquiz/ and while I am about it, I will amend my signature.
If this is all about oxytocin, well, this is what I've got to say about oxytocin; if you added up all the time that I've spent breastfeeding it would add up to quite a few years of my life. I guess that means that my brain has been thoroughly dosed with oxytocin??? Well, my personality hasn't changed in any fundamental way (except for usual changes that happen when most people become parents). I still don't see the point of sport (playing or watching) and I still have not one ounce of team spirit. I still find socializing to generally be a bore, except when something important or controversial or scientific is being discussed (and that happens too rarely). I still find the company of most people to be simply boring. I still don't much enjoy attending parties, even parties for my own birthday put on by other people. I still find sentimental movies (chick flicks) and TV soaps (Neighbours, MacLeod's Daughters) created for a female audience to be at best boring, at worst, nauseating. I still love to sit and concentrate on one task for a long period of time. I still crave intellectual stimulation. I still hate being in situations in which I have to constantly switch attention, or pay attention to people. I still often have trouble decoding speech, and have an auditory processing ability right at the bottom of the normal range.
I'm not claiming that the weird hormonal events that happen to mothers and fathers have no effect, they do, but they don't "cure" autism, because autism isn't caused by a lack of oxytocin.
One would never expect just one drug to "cure" something with profound physiological differences and an extreme spectrum of expressions, or to have long term effects unless it was one of those unhappy drugs that just never really leaves your system. It's probably approaching treating a single symptom and not the cause or other effects. I actually kind of like the idea of the neurotransmitter not having long term effect actually. If it did anything useful at all it would mean I could use it when I wanted and forget about it the rest of the time.