NCT03265899

Oxytocin and the Processing of Social Stress-Associated Chemosignals

Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Randomized Study: Oxytocin Modulation of Stress-Associated Chemosignals Processing

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 60 (actual)
• Sponsor: University Hospital, Bonn · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether oxytocin modulates the processing of stress-associated chemosignals and which substrates are involved.

Detailed description

Social transmission of stress and fear is not restricted to visual or auditory cues, but extends to the olfactory domain, a phylogenetically more ancient sense. Exposure to axillary sweat from healthy volunteers undergoing an emotional stressor task evokes a strong vicarious stress response on the behavioral and neural level.Particularly, anxious individuals have been shown to exhibit a heightened sensitivity to social chemosensory stress cues (axillary sweat). The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) exerts anxiolytic and anti-stress effects in visual and auditory modalities, however, it still elusive whether OXT also modulates the processing of stress-associated chemosignals. Axillary sweat were obtained from an unrelated sample of 30 healthy men undergoing the Trier Social Stress Test and ergometer training as control.Subsequently, subjects completed a forced-choice emotional face recognition task composed of stimuli with varying intensities (neutral to fearful), while they were exposed to both sweat stimuli and a non-social control odor (raspberry) after OXT or placebo administration, respectively. The investigators expect that OXT selectively diminishes chemosensory-induced behavioral biases and neural responses to stress-related odors.

Conditions

• Healthy Volunteers

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Oxytocin	40 IU; 5 puffs balanced across nostrils, at an inter-puff interval of 30 seconds
DRUG	Placebo	Placebo nasal spray, 5 puffs balanced across nostrils, at an inter-puff interval of 30 seconds

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-07-01
• Primary completion: 2016-11-30
• Completion: 2016-11-30
• First posted: 2017-08-29
• Last updated: 2017-08-29