Table 2.
fMRI changes in response to acute administration of oxytocin or vasopressin.
| Study | Subjects | Task Description | Task Valence | Amygdala | Temporal lobe | Insula | Anterior cingulate | Prefrontal | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OXYTOCIN | |||||||||
| Kirsch et al., 2005 | 15 M | Fearful stimuli, including face showing fear | Negative | ↓L | ↓Coupling between amygdala and brainstem | ||||
| Domes et al., 2007 | 13 M | Looking at fearful, angry, happy faces | Negative | ↓R | ↓L | ↓L | ↓L cerebellum, medulla, thalamus, R pre- and L post-central gyrus (negative valence), ↓L paracentral gyrus (negative and positive valence) | ||
| Positive | ↓R | ↓ | |||||||
| Baumgartner et al., 2008 | 49 M | Financial game involving trust | Neutral | ↓ | ↓L | ↓Brainstem L (midbrain), ↓caudate, ↓L post-central gyrus | |||
| Petrovic et al., 2008 | 27 M | Neutral faces previously paired with negative experiences | Negative | ↓R | ↓ | ↓R | ↓vmPFC ↓vlPFC ↓L OFC |
↓R fusiform face area | |
| Singer et al., 2008 (AH) | 20 M | Observing pain inflicted on another | Negative | No difference on social/ empathy tasks | |||||
| Gamer et al., 2010 | 46 M | Classifying fearful and happy faces | Negative | ↓L (ant) | ↑Superior colliculus, and connectivity of superior colliculus and posterior amygdala | ||||
| Positive | ↑L (ant) | ||||||||
| Domes et al., 2010 | 16 F | Rating fearful, happy, angry faces | Negative | ↑L | ↑L | ↑L | ↑ | ↑R brainstem (fear), ↑ fusiform gyrus, | |
| Positive | ↑L | ↑L | |||||||
| Riem et al., 2011 | 42 F | Sound of infant crying | Negative | ↓R | ↑ | ↑ | |||
| Rilling et al., 2012 | 60 M | Prisoners dilemma game (Reciprocated or un-reciprocated cooperation) | Negative | ↑L | ↑L caudate (positive) ↑Amygdala -insula and -temporal connectivity, ↓Amygdala-brainstem connectivity |
||||
| Positive | ↑L | ||||||||
| Lischke et al., 2012 | 14 F | Viewing threatening and non-threatening scenes | Negative | ↑ | ↑L | ↓R SMA for positive stimuli | |||
| Wittfoth-Schardt et al., 2012 | 21 M | Viewing pictures of child faces (own vs. other) | Positive | ↓Activity and functional connectivity in globus pallidus, ↓ L hippocampus | |||||
| Striepens et al., 2012 | 70 M | Aversive social stimuli | Negative | ↓R | ↑L (recall) | ↑Coupling between amygdala, insula and PFC | |||
| Groppe et al., 2013 | 28 F | Social incentive delay task (reward vs. punishment anticipation) | Positive | ↑L | ↑ VTA activity, ↑L occipital, | ||||
| Negative | ↑ VTA, ↓precentral gyrus, ↓L cuneus, ↓R post-central gyrus, | ||||||||
| Both | ↑ | ↑VTA, ↑L thalamus, striatum, brainstem, ↑R thalamus, | |||||||
| Sripada et al., 2013 | 15 M | Resting state | N/A | ↑mPFC | ↑Amygdala connectivity to mPFC and ACC | ||||
| Riem et al., 2013 | 42 F | Resting state while recalling love withdrawal | Negative | ↑Connectivity between posterior cingulate cortex and brainstem | |||||
| Rilling et al., 2014 | 87 F | Prisoners dilemma game (Reciprocated and un-reciprocated cooperation) | Negative | Note lack of findings as previously seen in male cohort on same task/ protocol (Rilling et al., 2012) | |||||
| Positive | ↓L | ||||||||
| Voorthuis et al., 2014 | 50 F | Emotion recognition in infant faces | Both | ↑L | ↑L IFG | ||||
| Riem et al., 2014 | 50 F | Reading the mind in the eyes task | Both | ↑L | ↑L | ||||
| Feng et al., 2014 | 153 M 151 F | Prisoners dilemma game (reciprocated cooperation) | Positive | ↑M ↓F | ↑M ↓F caudate/putamen | ||||
| Kanat et al., 2015b | 49 M | Detection of angry, happy, or neutral expression | Negative | ↓ | ↓Fusiform, brainstem and striate cortex ↓connectivity amygdala and fusiform (for angry and fearful stimuli) |
||||
| Positive | ↓ | ↓ | |||||||
| Kumar et al., 2014 | 15 M | Resting state | N/A | ↓Connectivity between amygdala and precuneus with OT | |||||
| Eckstein et al., 2015 | 62 M | Conditioned fear response followed by extinction | Negative | ↓ | ↑ | ↑Connectivity from PFC to precuneus, and precuneus to amygdala | |||
| Kanat et al., 2015a | 50 M | Fearful faces, and eyes only (asked to assess gender) | Negative | ↓R | ↓L | ↓L | ↓R pulvinar (trend) | ||
| Chen et al., 2015 | 153 M 151 F | Prisoners dilemma game (unreciprocated cooperation) | Negative | ↓ M | ↓ M | ||||
| OXYTOCIN IN PARTICIPANTS WITH ASD | |||||||||
| Gordon et al., 2013 | 17 ASD | Reading the mind in the eyes task vs. vehicle classification task | Both | ↑L | ↑R precentral gyrus, ↑ striatum and nucleus accumbens, ↑ cerebellum and pons, ↑Posterior cingulate, precuneus, ↑L parahippocampal region, ↑ L inferior parietal lobule, | ||||
| Domes et al., 2013 | 28 M 14 ASD | Face matching and house matching task | Neutral | ↑R (in ASD) | |||||
| Domes et al., 2014 | 28 M 14 ASD | Face emotion recognition task | Both | ↑L (ASD) | ↑R | ↑IFG, SMA, cerebellum, and superior parietal lobe | |||
| Watanabe et al., 2014 | 40 M ASD | Making decisions about social information | Both | ↓ | ↑ | ↑mPFC | ↑Connectivity from mPFC to ACC | ||
| Aoki et al., 2014 | 20 M ASD | Sally-Anne task (inferring emotions) | Both | ↑ R (ant) | |||||
| VASOPRESSIN | |||||||||
| Zink et al., 2010 | 20 M | Face matching task | Negative | ↓mPFC | ↓Subgenual cingulate region ↓Connectivity in this area |
||||
| Zink et al., 2011 | 20 M | Face matching task (familiar vs. unfamiliar) | Negative | ↓TPJ | |||||
| Rilling et al., 2012 | 60 M | Prisoners dilemma game (Reciprocated and un-reciprocated cooperation) | Both | ↑BNST, lateral septum and stria terminalis. ↑Amygdala insula connectivity |
|||||
| Brunnlieb et al., 2013 | 42 M | Black and white drawings of social situations without facial information | Negative | ↑R | Increased functional connectivity between amygdala and mPFC | ||||
| Positive | |||||||||
| Feng et al., 2014 | 153 M 151 F | Prisoners dilemma game (reciprocated cooperation) | Positive | ↑M ↓F | ↑R SMG M ↓R SMG F |
||||
| Chen et al., 2015 | 153 M 151 F | Prisoners dilemma game (unreciprocated cooperation) | Negative | ↓M | ↓M | ||||
Table Includes studies with tasks related to social processing, or resting state, in control subjects or those with ASD. fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging. Boxes for regions left blank were either not studied or indicated in the respective manuscript, or differences were non-significant. Findings in italics are from secondary/exploratory analyses. Task valence refers to the emotional quality (e.g., positive = happy; negative = fearful) of the task in which the fMRI findings are described. L, left side only; R, right side only; M, male subjects; F, female subjects; N/A, not applicable; ↑, increased activity; ↓, decreased activity; vlPFC, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; vmPFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex; mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; Ant, anterior; VTA, ventral tegmental area; ASD, autism spectrum disorder; SMG, supramarginal gyrus; SMA, supplementary motor area; TPJ, temporoparietal junction; BNST, basal nucleus of stratum terminale; ACC, anterior cingulate cortex. Most studies used intranasal oxytocin administration, of 16–24 IU, or intranasal vasopressin administration of 20–40 IU.