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Oxytocin activates brain function in
autistic kids
Wednesday May 23, 2012 07:55:58 AM,
IANS
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Washington: Oxytocin,
often referred to as a love hormone, boosts activity in brain
areas of autistic children involving sight, hearing and
understanding other people.
These are the preliminary results from an ongoing, large-scale
study led by postoctoral fellow IIanit Gordon and Kevin Pelphrey,
associate professor of child psychiatry and psychology at the Yale
School of Medicine.
Gordon and her team conducted a first-of-its-kind, rigorous study
on kids aged between seven and 18 years with autism. They gave
them a single dose of oxytocin in a nasal spray and used
functional magnetic resonance brain imaging to observe its effect.
Previous studies have shown that the inability to secrete oxytocin
and feel empathy is linked to sociopathy, psychopathy, narcissism
and general manipulativenes, according to an Yale statement.
"Our findings provide the first, critical steps toward devising
more effective treatments for the core social deficits in autism,
which may involve a combination of clinical interventions with an
administration of oxytocin," said Gordon.
Autism, a neuro-developmental disorder, can have enormous
emotional and financial burden on the affected individual, their
families, and society. It is characterised by a stunted ability to
communicate verbally and non-verbally or interact socially.
These findings were presented Saturday at the International
Meeting for Autism Research.
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