Sex-specific effects of intranasal oxytocin on autonomic nervous system and emotional responses to couple conflict

In the paper

“effects of a single neuropharmacological challenge might differ considerably from endogenous OT mechanisms”

What the sources say

• ?Could not verify

  The paper reports behavioral effects of experimentally infused oxytocin in the Open-field test and Experiment II, and discusses region-specific receptor regulation. Searches for endogenous oxytocin and for a comparison between pharmacological challenges and natural signaling found no passage making the claimed comparison; the indexed passages provide no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.73)

  cites Bale et al., 2001 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Landgraf and Neumann, 2004 source

In the paper

“the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), which has been shown to improve social affiliation and attachment and to reduce anxiety and stress (Young et al., 2001;Donaldson and Young, 2008;Ross and Young, 2009;Insel, 2010).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Young et al., 2001 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Donaldson and Young, 2008 source
• Partly supported

  The Abstract and §1.14 describe oxytocin’s role in affiliative behavior and bonding. Section 1.9 reports that oxytocin treatment lowered stress-induced cortisol in isolated hamsters, but the copy does not establish a general reduction in anxiety; the claim also broadens an animal stress finding without that qualifier. Page numbers were not supplied. (LLM, conf=0.85)

  cites Ross and Young, 2009 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured

In the paper

“In female prairie voles, peripheral OT administration reduced HR responses to social isolation (Grippo et al., 2009) and to social stress (resident intruder test) (Grippo et al., 2012).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The 2009 citation is attached to the social-isolation finding, not the resident-intruder finding attributed to Grippo et al. (2012). The Abstract reports that subcutaneous oxytocin prevented the isolation-induced increase in heart rate in adult female prairie voles. (LLM, conf=0.94)

  cites Grippo et al., 2009 source
• Supported

  The 2012 citation is attached to the resident-intruder social-stress finding, not the separate social-isolation finding cited to Grippo et al. (2009). In the Discussion (page not provided), the paper reports that heart rate was highest in isolated voles given vehicle and that oxytocin partially prevented their autonomic reactions during the resident-intruder test. (LLM, conf=0.92)

  cites Grippo et al., 2012 source

In the paper

“SAA has been interpreted as an indirect marker of ANS activity and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in particular (Ehlert et al., 2006;Nater et al., 2006;Nater and Rohleder, 2009).”

What the sources say

• Supported

  The Abstract concludes that sAA might be an indirect indicator of the central sympathetic system. The introductory section also describes stress-related sAA changes as reflecting ANS activity in general and reports a positive relationship with sympathetic tone. This supports the citing sentence's qualified wording, “has been interpreted.” Page numbers are not provided in the excerpts. (LLM, conf=0.93)

  cites Ehlert et al., 2006 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Nater et al., 2006 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Nater and Rohleder, 2009 source

In the paper

“Men with OT reported higher emotional arousal to the couple conflict, whereas women with OT reported lower emotional arousal in comparison to placebo (Figure 2).”

• Also stated in: § RESULTS · hedged

  “Results, as indicated by HLM analyses with emotional arousal as dependent variable, indeed suggest no main effects of either group or sex but, again, a significant sex  group interaction (Table 2).”

In the paper

“In women, there were no associations of sAA with emotional arousal or with observed conflict behavior.”

In the paper

“The model explained 22.4% in emotional arousal.”

In the paper

“Fischer-Shofty et al. (2012) detected a significant OT by sex interaction in social perception of kinship and competition in video sequences.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Fischer-Shofty et al., 2012

In the paper

“All women were investigated during the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle.”

In the paper

“As normal distribution of repeatedly assessed sAA was not violated, untransformed sAA levels were used in the analyses.”

In the paper

“Associations of increases in sAA (difference scores were calculated as sAA after conflict, þ10 min, ÀsAA prior to conflict instructions, À20 min) with group assignment (OT/placebo) and emotional arousal were calculated using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), with sex, group, sex  group, BMI, age and baseline sAA included on level 1, and an empty couple level 2, in order to take into account the”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Kenny et al., 2006

In the paper

“Inter-and intraassay variance was below 1%.”

In the paper

“However, male participants in the placebo group were slightly older than participants in the OT group.”

In the paper

“However, the opposite is the case in men, in whom results strikingly resemble the data recently reported by Gamer and Buchel (2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Gamer and Buchel, 2011 source

In the paper

“In these analyses, couple data were also treated as repeated measures in order to account for dependency between partners.”

In the paper

“They also correspond to 'befriending' mechanisms in women, as opposed to the fight-or-flight physiology in men, as suggested by Taylor et al. (2000), and to the anxiolytic effects which were found in previous research in humans (Meyer-Lindenberg et al., 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Taylor et al., 2000 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Meyer-Lindenberg et al., 2011 source

In the paper

“Thus, in line with Bartz et al. (2011) andMcCall andSinger (2012), in our study, OT might have driven quiescence in women and social salience and approach behavior in men.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Bartz et al., 2011 source
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites McCall and Singer, 2012 source

In the paper

“Experiments took place in the laboratories of the Department of Psychology at the University of Zurich between 5:00 pm and 7:30 pm to control for diurnal variation in sAA activity.”

In the paper

“As parallel data on OT effects in both men and women are still rare and, in part, conflicting (for an overview, see Bartz et al., 2011), it is particularly important to investigate both sexes within the same research design.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Bartz et al., 2011 source

In the paper

“ongoing couple conflicts have been suggested to constantly increase stress and, thereby, to impair individual health (Kiecolt-Glaser and Newton, 2001).”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Kiecolt-Glaser and Newton, 2001 source

In the paper

“Mauchly's test indicated that the assumption of sphericity had been violated, and therefore in repeated measures, multivariate tests using Pillai's trace correction are reported (cf.Field, 2009).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Field, 2009

In the paper

“The two groups (placebo vs OT) did not significantly differ in their BMI, duration of relationship, relationship quality, years of education, chronic stress levels, and number of general health symptoms or baseline sAA (À50 min relative to the onset of the conflict).”

In the paper

“However, with regard to underlying neuroendocrine mechanisms, in our study, OT did not show overall attenuating or stimulating effects but rather sex-specific influences on sAA.”

In the paper

“Moreover, intranasal OT increased both sympathetic activity (assessed by PEP) and parasympathetic activity (assessed by high-frequency HR variability) (Norman et al., 2011).”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Norman et al., 2011

In the paper

“Our results imply sex-specific effects of oxytocin on sympathetic activity, to negative couple interaction, with the neuropeptide reducing sAA responses and emotional arousal in women while increasing them in men.”

In the paper

“The study was in line with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the ethics committee of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland.”

In the paper

“In a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, 47 heterosexual couples (total n ¼ 94) received oxytocin or placebo intranasally prior to instructed couple conflict.”

• Also stated in: § METHODS AND MATERIALS · plain

  “Following this procedure, in a double-blind design, couples self-administered either 40 IU (five puffs in each nostril) of OT (Syntocinon Spray, Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) or placebo intranasally under the supervision of the study coordinator.”

In the paper

“Research in couples shows that women tend to express demand behavior more frequently, while men tend to show withdraw behavior (Gottman and Krokoff, 1989;Christensen and Heavey, 1990;Bodenmann et al., 1998)”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Gottman and Krokoff, 1989
• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Christensen and Heavey, 1990
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Bodenmann et al., 1998 source

In the paper

“Hence, attempts to account for the causal nature of sAA, emotions or behavior in response to the conflict remain speculative.”

In the paper

“In a recent study, ANS responses were triggered by positive couple interactions (as compared to neutral interactions; Nealey-Moore et al., 2007), an effect which was attributed to the emotional nature of the task.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Nealey-Moore et al., 2007 source