Aspies For Freedom

Autism symptoms aided by 'love' hormone: study
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 | 3:55 PM ET Comments0Recommend10CBC News
A hormone associated with emotional bonding promotes social behaviour in adults with autism, French researchers say.

Scientists at the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience in Lyon found that patients who inhaled the hormone oxytocin paid more attention to pictures of faces and were more likely to notice social cues when playing a game.

In the small study, Angela Sirigu and colleagues gave the hormone to 13 patients with Asperger's syndrome, considered to be a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.

They then observed those patients and an equal number of other patients who didn't receive the treatment playing a virtual ball-passing game.

In another experiment, the researchers measured the patients' attentiveness to emotional expressions on pictures of human faces.

The patients who received the hormone showed more attention to the visual cues in the pictures of faces, and were more likely to understand the social cues in the game.

Sirigu said the study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, merits future research on the possible benefits of the hormone in promoting social behaviour.

People with classical autism are often uncommunicative, while those with Asperger's are often very bright but have problems with social interaction.

Previous research has found that some children with autism are deficient in oxytocin, sometimes called the "love hormone."

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/...rmone.html

Oxytocin is best known for its actions in prompting childbirth and lactation, but it is also produced throughout life. Previous research has suggested roles for the hormone in emotional regulation and social behaviors. One study found that inhaled oxytocin made adults more trusting of others in a game situation.

Some investigators have also found that oxytocin levels are depressed in autistic individuals. One of the hallmark symptoms of autism is social withdrawal and impaired responsiveness to other people, marked by such behaviors as greatly diminished eye contact.

Participants in the study were 17 to 39 years old, with an average age of 26. Ten had received clinical diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome, and three were considered to have high-functioning autism.

Patients received either a nasal spray containing oxytocin or an ineffective dummy nasal spray and participated in behavioral experiments 50 minutes later. In the video ball game, participants played a game of toss-and-catch with three cartoon characters whose interaction with the player could vary. Initially, each character sent the ball to the player 33 percent of the time, passing it between themselves the rest of the time. After awhile, the percentages changed such that one character would send the player the ball 70 percent of the time, the second sent 30 percent of balls to the player, and the third sent just 10 percent of balls to the player. The player was promised a payment for each ball he or she received.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AutismNews/...id=9843745

Thanks for posting this, Skyblue.  It's an extremely important subject (my special interest) but only because of my experience with it.  Once again, I will go into my rant.  If you have not experienced the effects of oxytocin, you will not totally get this.  But I have, and has affected my viewpoint on AS.  One would think that because we are wired differently and would need years of training to learn to be social even if we were magically changed to NT.  Not true.  When the social chemicals are working or at NT levels, you are supplied with the motivation to pay extraordinary close attention to everything about that other person.  You have strong urges to read them.  You want very badly to bond with them.  You don't need training.  When these chemicals are working, I do small talk, people are drawn to me, I love them, they love me, I am accepted.  When I am not taking the metabolizing agent, I am back to the other me.  And I cannot use what I have learned to be NT.

    The chemicals themselves create the urge to bond and they are what make you hyperfocus so much that you can read the person.  In the end what makes people socialize is just a neurochemical, and it is activated when you are physically close to another.  It is powerful and causes NTs to act the way they do.  it is us that are normal, meaning we dont trust others because they aren't trustworthy.  NTs have chemicals in their bodies that make them overcome normal suspicion.  It's bizarre, but nature's way of getting us to bond socially, herd, survive.

    I guess everyone wants to believe so badly that AS is unchangeable that they refuse to look at research that doesn't support their politics.  I am politically against the use of oxytocin for autistics, but as a scientific person, I am very against dismissing sound scientific research just because it doesn't support my political beliefs.  I assume everyone here would feel that the truth matters more than winning.  But if you mention anything on this forum that enters the gray areas of cure, it is dismissed.  On the other hand, if someone wants to say that we should oppose the research on oxytocin because it could lead to NT-fueled genocide.  I would shut up about this from now on.

   Until then, do your research on the genetic polymorphisms that keep the metabolism of brain chemicals from working.  Sorry.  There is no structural difference in this area.  It is strictly social hormones.  I am not saying this particular metabolic aid that I tried works for everyone, but I went through hell when I had this social change.  It was horrible, upsetting, made me doubt my identity, and I am still angry that no one here would help me.  But I since it does not fit with anti-cure politics, it is dismissed.  Of course cure isn't possible, but the social aspect of our genotype is fully reversible in adults.  And I think this forum should be available for those who want to talk about the ethical and personal decision of choosing whether to have their social chemicals or not.  I choose not, but I got no help here, just people acting like I was making it up.  Okay. End of rant.

If I had had the opportunity to buy a sample, I would have tested it very long time ago.

I'm with zoey. It's like driving convertible or motorcycle. No one can convey the feeling only by telling you how great it feels, you have to experience it by yourself. And only then you can decide for it or against it.

And I think oxytocin is worth a try, because the study results are more or less the same all years ago, in any case positive.

When you fall in love with someone (activate the oxytocin, or whatever) you of course are going to make that person one of your special interests.

I also wonder it it is a "use it or lose it" effect: we have difficulty in making social connection, therefore our oxytocin levels probably fall naturally, rather than the low oxytocin levels making it difficult to form social connection. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Alison

I see a potential for a lot of abuse with this drug. Aspies using it to get "straight" for a period of time. It could be used as just a lark or as a serious treatment.

Since I would resist changing myself on a permanent basis, I would use it just as a lark, so I could go somewhere and fit in better with the inhabitants of wherever I am at. But would want to come "down" from my high at some point and return to myself.

I use cannabis in much the same way, in that it lowers my anxiety levels enough to where I can function.

This probably doesnt make since to any one but me.

This is interesting to me... Such a simple operation of the genes to change production of the hormone and result in a more detached person seems like it could be meaningful within tribal cultures. These types of persons would over time be necessary parts of their societies such as shamans and similar types of meaningful work. Now today, our cultures do not have this kind of organization, and whatever the use of the lowered hormone was in any of our ancestral cultures, that today does not (yet) have a context.

Rockie Wrote:

This is interesting to me... Such a simple operation of the genes to change production of the hormone and result in a more detached person seems like it could be meaningful within tribal cultures. These types of persons would over time be necessary parts of their societies such as shamans and similar types of meaningful work. Now today, our cultures do not have this kind of organization, and whatever the use of the lowered hormone was in any of our ancestral cultures, that today does not (yet) have a context.

What sort of useful work did shamans do? Apart from living off other people's work?
Alison

Alison Wrote:

Rockie Wrote:

This is interesting to me... Such a simple operation of the genes to change production of the hormone and result in a more detached person seems like it could be meaningful within tribal cultures. These types of persons would over time be necessary parts of their societies such as shamans and similar types of meaningful work. Now today, our cultures do not have this kind of organization, and whatever the use of the lowered hormone was in any of our ancestral cultures, that today does not (yet) have a context.

What sort of useful work did shamans do? Apart from living off other people's work?
Alison

in modern society they are probably not considered useful

Here is basically what inspired my response.

This is an excerpt from an online book, from 1898 regarding early cultures in Finland.

There is really some interesting stuff in here as far as suggesting that within some primordial cultures, an autistic spectrum child was not a problem but a solution. Communities needed "intermediaries" between themselves and the supernatural for a sense of security, and back then, a sense of security regarding the complex, untamed world was really important...

Essentially these persons who did intermediary work were highly valued and so the adult men of this type seem to have been always having families and thus keeping present whatever DNA had led them to be a "youth with abnormal temperment"...

Perhaps one aspect was a distinctly different amount of oxytocin?

Quote:

Believing as they did in various supernatural, invisible powers who were inaccessible to ordinary men, the prehistoric Finns no doubt had recourse to wizards and exorcists, who were credited with possessing the power of communicating with the unseen world, and of interpreting and explaining the will of the gods and the invisible spirits.

The reason why this power was attributed to certain men was simply the fact that they were partially demented, were queer in their behaviour and appearance, and when young were subject to fits, spasms, hysteria, incoherent raving, and other signs that clearly showed they were possessed by a spirit, and therefore fit and natural interpreters of the invisible world of spirits. Such are the signs by which the Buriats, the Turks of the Altai, and the Yakuts know that a youth has been specially chosen by the gods to act as a šaman, a kam, or an ojun. 1 As partial mental alienation is apt to run in families, the wizard's power would generally be handed down from father to son, as is the case with the above-mentioned Siberian peoples; and judging from what is related of it, the amount of education given to the young šaman was not very great. But he had to be a good mimic; he must know how to imitate the screech of the eagle, the cackle of the goose, the croak of the raven, the hissing of the snake, the neighing of the horse, and many other natural sounds, when pretending to ascend to the sky or to descend to the lower regions. For such journeys were not related in mere words; they were vivid dramatic representations of a primitive kind, in which the šaman played the part of many invisible characters and animals, changing his voice to suit each part. Such a performance could not fail to leave on the simple unquestioning minds of the spectators a deep impression of the reality of the whole affair. These exhibitions are best preserved by the Turks of the Altai, but considerable traces of similar performances were to be found among the Lapps a couple of centuries ago.

Originally the wizards and seers were not what we should nowadays call magicians: they did not employ magic

p. 172

means to thwart the will of a god, or even to exert external force upon him. From their own point of view, their actions were perfectly rational, and their words both natural and harmless in themselves. Their functions were to find out why any one had been taken ill; whether a certain animal destined for sacrifice would be acceptable to the god, where lost animals were to be found, and practical questions of that sort. To fulfil their tasks they had at their beck and call certain friendly familiar spirits who could inquire of the higher spirits with whom even the wizard was unable to converse. To summon the familiar spirits who lived a long way off a drum had to be used, and when they arrived they were supposed to place themselves inside the drum. It was a most important instrument, and in the hands of a skilful wizard produced a variety of tones: hollow, muffled sounds that seemed to come from the depths of the earth; sharp incisive raps showing that a decisive point had been reached in the dramatic performance; loud, rapid, tumultuous sounds that pictured a terrible conflict.

Rockie Wrote:

Here is basically what inspired my response.

This is an excerpt from an online book, from 1898 regarding early cultures in Finland.

There is really some interesting stuff in here as far as suggesting that within some primordial cultures, an autistic spectrum child was not a problem but a solution. Communities needed "intermediaries" between themselves and the supernatural for a sense of security, and back then, a sense of security regarding the complex, untamed world was really important...

Essentially these persons who did intermediary work were highly valued and so the adult men of this type seem to have been always having families and thus keeping present whatever DNA had led them to be a "youth with abnormal temperment"...

Perhaps one aspect was a distinctly different amount of oxytocin?

Quote:

Believing as they did in various supernatural, invisible powers who were inaccessible to ordinary men, the prehistoric Finns no doubt had recourse to wizards and exorcists, who were credited with possessing the power of communicating with the unseen world, and of interpreting and explaining the will of the gods and the invisible spirits.

The reason why this power was attributed to certain men was simply the fact that they were partially demented, were queer in their behaviour and appearance, and when young were subject to fits, spasms, hysteria, incoherent raving, and other signs that clearly showed they were possessed by a spirit, and therefore fit and natural interpreters of the invisible world of spirits. Such are the signs by which the Buriats, the Turks of the Altai, and the Yakuts know that a youth has been specially chosen by the gods to act as a šaman, a kam, or an ojun. 1 As partial mental alienation is apt to run in families, the wizard's power would generally be handed down from father to son, as is the case with the above-mentioned Siberian peoples; and judging from what is related of it, the amount of education given to the young šaman was not very great. But he had to be a good mimic; he must know how to imitate the screech of the eagle, the cackle of the goose, the croak of the raven, the hissing of the snake, the neighing of the horse, and many other natural sounds, when pretending to ascend to the sky or to descend to the lower regions. For such journeys were not related in mere words; they were vivid dramatic representations of a primitive kind, in which the šaman played the part of many invisible characters and animals, changing his voice to suit each part. Such a performance could not fail to leave on the simple unquestioning minds of the spectators a deep impression of the reality of the whole affair. These exhibitions are best preserved by the Turks of the Altai, but considerable traces of similar performances were to be found among the Lapps a couple of centuries ago.

Originally the wizards and seers were not what we should nowadays call magicians: they did not employ magic

p. 172

means to thwart the will of a god, or even to exert external force upon him. From their own point of view, their actions were perfectly rational, and their words both natural and harmless in themselves. Their functions were to find out why any one had been taken ill; whether a certain animal destined for sacrifice would be acceptable to the god, where lost animals were to be found, and practical questions of that sort. To fulfil their tasks they had at their beck and call certain friendly familiar spirits who could inquire of the higher spirits with whom even the wizard was unable to converse. To summon the familiar spirits who lived a long way off a drum had to be used, and when they arrived they were supposed to place themselves inside the drum. It was a most important instrument, and in the hands of a skilful wizard produced a variety of tones: hollow, muffled sounds that seemed to come from the depths of the earth; sharp incisive raps showing that a decisive point had been reached in the dramatic performance; loud, rapid, tumultuous sounds that pictured a terrible conflict.

do you think some of us may have been shamans,had we lived during those times

Nice research, Rockie. Very interesting stuff.

Blimey! This stuff reads like deja vu. Been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. I was born in 1945, into a working class, apostolic evangelical church extended family framework, and was speaking in tongues, prophesying and healing by the age of seven - no wonder they called me witchcraft at school

ps - i am 65 now and have just realised that i still do speaking in tongues, prophesying and healing, but not in a religious context (tourettes when concentrating deeply on anything to the exclusion of everything and everyone else, bluesky thinking/brainstorming/business case development/option generation/etc at work and (at home only for my wife) laying on of hands sometimes by massage, but also by stroking and simply touching, to relieve pain and sometimes just to de-stress her

skyblue1 Wrote:

do you think some of us may have been shamans,had we lived during those times

I think so... The descriptions given of the persons who were identified to be good candidates for the shaman positions seems to match an autistic spectrum condition rather than something like a schizophrenic condition.

At least today, schizophrenia tends not to become evident until early adulthood. As far as I have heard/read, schizophrenic conditions would not lend themselves to being able to reliably carry out the complex practices of the shamans at least in the culture mentioned here.
Although, I feel like in some cultures perhaps autistic spectrum persons and schizophrenic persons might have simply been persons chosen to make peace with the supernatural for the good of the tribe.

skyblue1

zoey

Lyn

Alison

skyblue1

Rockie

Alison

skyblue1

Rockie

skyblue1

zoey

adriant.esq

adriant.esq

Rockie