Temporal profile of intranasal oxytocin in the human autonomic nervous system at rest: An electrocardiography and pupillometry study

Background: Human social behavior is modulated by oxytocin (OT). Intranasal administration of OT (IN-OT) is a noninvasive route shown to elicit changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity; however, IN-OT’s effect on the temporal profile of ANS activity at rest is yet to be described. Aims...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford) Vol. 37; no. 6; pp. 566 - 576
Main Authors Cosme, Gonçalo, Arriaga, Patrícia, Rosa, Pedro J., Mehta, Mitul A., Prata, Diana
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.06.2023
Subjects
Administration, Intranasal
Autonomic Nervous System
Electrocardiography
Heart Rate
Humans
Male
Oxytocin - pharmacology
Social Behavior
Electrocardiography
resting state
neuropeptide
pharmacodynamics
pupil unrest
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Summary:Background: Human social behavior is modulated by oxytocin (OT). Intranasal administration of OT (IN-OT) is a noninvasive route shown to elicit changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity; however, IN-OT’s effect on the temporal profile of ANS activity at rest is yet to be described. Aims: We aimed to describe the temporal profile of IN-OT at six 10-min time windows from 15- to 100-min post-administration in 20 male participants at rest while continuously recording their pupillary in an eyes-open condition and cardiac activity in eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions. Methods: We used a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects design study where we extracted two proxies of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity: high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) and pupillary unrest index (PUI); and a proxy of sympathetic nervous system activity: sample entropy of the pupillary unrest. Results: In the eyes-open condition, we found an effect of IN-OT on the proxies of PNS activity: decreased PUI in the three-time windows post-administration spanning 65–100 min, and as an exploratory finding, an increased HF-HRV in the 80–85 min time window. Conclusions: We suggest there is a role of OT in PNS regulation that may be consistent with OT’s currently theorized role in the facilitation of alertness and approach behavior.
ISSN:0269-8811
1461-7285
DOI:10.1177/02698811231158233