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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