The DOI matches its Crossref record; 58 of the 59 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Oxytocin increases autonomic cardiac control: Moderation by loneliness
Abstract
The current study examined the role of perceived social isolation in moderating the effects of oxytocin on cardiac autonomic control in humans. Intranasal administration of 20 IU oxytocin resulted in a significant increase in autonomic (parasympathetic and sympathetic) cardiac control. Specifically, oxytocin increased high frequency heart rate variability, a relatively pure measure of parasympathetic cardiac control, and decreased pre-ejection period, a well-validated marker of enhanced sympathetic cardiac control. Derived metrics of autonomic co-activity and reciprocity revealed that oxytocin significantly increased overall autonomic cardiac control. Furthermore, the effects of oxytocin on cardiac autonomic control were significantly associated with loneliness ratings. Higher levels of loneliness were associated with diminished parasympathetic cardiac reactivity to intranasal oxytocin. The effects of OT on autonomic cardiac control were independent of any effects on circulating pro-inflammatory cytokine or stress hormone levels. Thus, lonely individuals may be less responsive to the salubrious effects of oxytocin on cardiovascular responsivity.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“intranasally administered and naturally secreted oxytocin increases HF-HRV in humans27–30.”
From Voluntary upregulation of heart rate variability through biofeedback is improved by mental contemplative training (2019) · cites this paper as [30]
In the citing paper
“intranasal administration of oxytocin has been found to increase HF-HRV in humans27–30”
From Voluntary upregulation of heart rate variability through biofeedback is improved by mental contemplative training (2019) · cites this paper as [30]
In the citing paper
“In humans, OT is mostly known for its functions in childbirth and breastfeeding, but it can also alleviate social stress, for example, by lowering salivary cortisol levels 4 , increasing parasympathetic control of the heart 5 , and attenuating amygdala activation in response to seeing faces 6,7 .”
From A registered replication study on oxytocin and trust (2020) · cites this paper as [5]
In the citing paper
“Furthermore, intranasal oxytocin regulates responses of the HPA axis [42] and the (para)sympathetic nervous system [43].”
From Efficacy of oxytocin administration early after psychotrauma in preventing the development of PTSD: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial (2014) · cites this paper as [43]
In the citing paper
“In the latter study, oxytocin significantly increased overall autonomic cardiac control because it elevated high frequency heart rate variability (HRV) and decreased the pre-ejection period (PEP), a well-known indicator of sympathetic cardiac control.”
In the citing paper
“Our finding of a reduction in PEP, a well-known marker of sympathetic cardiac control [32], in oxytocin-treated patients (Table 2, p = 0.007)”
In the citing paper
“another research group that found intranasal oxytocin to increase the HR and to decrease PEP in healthy individuals [32].”
Citations
Cites
Multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions
(1992) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.29-3352 · Cited by 36,647
A Global Measure of Perceived Stress
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2136404 · Cited by 32,807
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 · Cited by 32,433
An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties.
Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., & Steer, R. A. (1988) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.56.6.893 · Cited by 14,407
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. (2011) · PsycTESTS Dataset · doi:10.1037/t00742-000 · Cited by 7,535
Social Relationships and Health
House, J. S., Landis, K. R., & Umberson, D. (1988) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.3399889 · Cited by 7,073
The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: concurrent and discriminant validity evidence
Russell, D., Peplau, L. A., & Cutrona, C. E. (1980) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.39.3.472 · Cited by 5,173
Heart rate variability: origins, methods, and interpretive caveats
BERNTSON, G. G., THOMAS BIGGER, J., ECKBERG, D. L., GROSSMAN, P., KAUFMANN, P. G., MALIK, M., NAGARAJA, H. N., PORGES, S. W., SAUL, J. P., STONE, P. H., et al. (1997) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1997.tb02140.x · Cited by 3,962
Self-citationOxytocin increases trust in humans
Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P. J., Fischbacher, U., & Fehr, E. (2005) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature03701 · Cited by 3,690
Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (form Y) : "self-evaluation questionnaire"
Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., & Lushene, R. E. (1970) · Consulting Psychologists Press eBooks · Cited by 2,352
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Oxytocin and vasopressin in the human brain: social neuropeptides for translational medicine
Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Domes, G., Kirsch, P., & Heinrichs, M. (2011) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn3044 · Cited by 1,688
Social effects of oxytocin in humans: context and person matter
Bartz, J. A., Zaki, J., Bolger, N., & Ochsner, K. N. (2011) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.002 · Cited by 1,581
Loneliness: clinical import and interventions
Cacioppo, S., Grippo, A. J., London, S., Goossens, L., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2015) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691615570616 · Cited by 1,206
Self-citationOxytocin pathways and the evolution of human behavior
Carter, C. S. (2014) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115110 · Cited by 714
Olff, M., Frijling, J. L., Kubzansky, L. D., Bradley, B., Ellenbogen, M. A., Cardoso, C., Bartz, J. A., Yee, J. R., & van Zuiden, M. (2013) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.06.019 · Cited by 620
Metadata
- Authors
- Norman, G. J., Cacioppo, J. T., Morris, J. S., Malarkey, W. B., Berntson, G. G., & DeVries, A. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Norman, Greg J.
- Venue
- Biological Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-03
- Volume
- 86
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 174-180
- ISSN
- 0301-0511 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2100442727
- Semantic Scholar
- 3cf9c7cd259a356839f42ecf143af3a8f6ef8b54
- Cited by
- 211
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 7.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Biological Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Templeton Foundation
- Clinical Research Center at The Ohio State University
- National Center of Research Resources of the NIH (WM) (UL1-RR025755)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuropeptides and Animal Physiology
- Keywords
- oxytocin, loneliness, social isolation, cardiac autonomic control, heart rate variability, pre-ejection period, intranasal administration, inflammatory cytokines, stress hormones
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Autonomic Nervous System, Blood Pressure, Catecholamines, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Loneliness, Male, Models, Biological, Oxytocics, Oxytocin, Predictive Value of Tests, Time Factors, Cytokines, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
