Dear Friends:
Interesting. We can't get oxytocin in a spray anymore to facilitate milk
ejection............but now there is an idea to use it to get people to
spend money?
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Scientists Experiment With 'Trust in a Bottle' Hormone
By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP
Trust in a bottle? It sounds like a marketer's fantasy, like the fabled
fountain of youth or the wild claims of fad diets. Yet that's what Swiss and
American scientists demonstrate in new experiments with a nasal spray containing
the hormone oxytocin.
After a few squirts, human subjects were significantly more trusting and
willing to invest money with no ironclad promise of a profit.
The researchers acknowledged their findings could be abused by con artists
or even sleazy politicians who might sway an election, provided they could
squirt enough voters on their way to the polls.
''Of course, this finding could be misused,'' said Ernst Fehr of the
University of Zurich, the senior researcher in the study, which appears in
Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. ''I don't think we currently have such abuses.
However, in the future it could happen.''
Other scientists say the new research raises important questions about
oxytocin's potential as a therapy for conditions like autism or social phobias, in
which trust is diminished. Or, perhaps the hormone's activity could be
reduced to treat more rare diseases, like Williams' Syndrome, in which children
have no inhibitions and approach strangers fearlessly.
''Might their high level of trust be due to excessive oxytocin release?''
asks University of Iowa neurologist Antonio Damasio, who reviewed the
experiments for Nature. ''Little is known about the neurobiology of trust, although
the phenomenon is beginning to attract attention.''
Then, elevated concentrations of the hormone also were found in
cerebrospinal fluid during and after birth, and experiments showed it was involved in the
biochemistry of attachment. It's a sensible conclusion, given that babies
require years of care and the body needs to motivate mothers for the demanding
task of childrearing.
In recent years, scientists have wondered whether oxytocin also is generally
involved with other aspects of bonding behavior - and specifically whether
it stimulates trust.
In the experiments, the researchers tried to manipulate people's trust by
adding more oxytocin to their brains. They used a synthetic version in a nasal
spray that was absorbed by mucous membranes and crossed the blood-brain
barrier. Researchers say the dose was harmless and altered oxytocin levels only
temporarily.
A total of 178 male students from universities in Zurich took part in a pair
of experiments. All the volunteers were in their 20s. They got the oxytocin
or a placebo.
In the first experiment, they played a game in which an ''investor'' could
choose to hand over to a ''trustee'' up to 12 units of money that are each
equal to .40 Swiss franc, or about 32 cents. The trustee triples the investor's
money, then gets to decide how much of the proceeds to share. The trustee
can't be certain how much - if anything - he will get in return.
Of 29 subjects who got oxytocin, 45 percent invested the maximum amount of
12 monetary units and, in the researchers' words, showed ''maximal trust.''
Only 21 percent had a lower trust level in which they invested less than 8
monetary units.
In contrast, the placebo group's trust behavior was reversed. Only 21
percent of the placebo subjects invested the maximum, while 45 percent invested at
low levels.
Overall, the investors who received oxytocin invested 17 percent more than
investors who received a placebo.
In a second experiment, investors faced the same decision. But this time,
the trustee was replaced by a computer program in an effort to see whether the
hormone promoted social interaction, or simply encouraged risk-taking.
With the computer, the oxytocin and placebo groups behaved similarly, with
both groups investing an average of 7.5 monetary units.
''Oxytocin causes a substantial increase in trusting behavior,'' Fehr and
his colleagues reported.
Researchers said they are performing a new round of experiments using brain
imaging. ''Now that we know that oxytocin has behavioral effects,'' Fehr
said, ''we want to know the brain circuits behind these effects.'' =
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative
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