Autonomic and Neuroendocrine Responses to a Psychosocial Stressor in Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Jansen, Lucres M. C.; Wied, Christine C. Gispen‐de; Wiegant, V.M.; Westenberg, H.G.M.; Lahuis, Bertine; Engeland, Hermán van

doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0124-z

Cited by 164 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…However, two studies of ASD patients reached different conclusions. One showed higher plasma OXT levels and another suggested no change in plasma OXT levels in autistic individuals [22,23]. The methods of OXT measurement used in these studies were radioimmunoassay (RIA) and enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) without sample extraction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Four studies have shown lower plasma OXT levels in children with ASD than in control individuals [15,[18][19][20], two studies have reported higher OXT levels [21,22], and one has reported no overall group difference [23]. Relationships between plasma OXT levels and social behaviors were either not investigated [15,21] or were analyzed in subsets or subtypes of ASD [22,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plasma Oxytocin and Arginine-Vasopressin Levels in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China: Associations with Symptoms

Zhang

Dai

et al. 2016

Neurosci. Bull.

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined by impairments of social interaction and the presence of obsessive behaviors. The ''twin'' nonapeptides oxytocin (OXT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) are known to play regulatory roles in social behaviors. However, the plasma levels and behavioral relevance of OXT and AVP in children with ASD have seldom been investigated. It is also unknown whether their mothers have abnormal plasma peptide levels. Here, using well-established methods of neuropeptide measurement and a relatively large sample size, we determined the plasma levels of the two neuropeptides in 85 normal children, 84 children with ASD, and 31 mothers from each group of children. As expected, children with ASD had lower plasma OXT levels than gender-matched controls (P = 0.028). No such difference was found for plasma AVP concentrations. Correlation analysis showed that ASD children with higher plasma OXT concentrations tended to have less impairment of verbal communication (Rho = -0.22, P = 0.076), while those with higher plasma AVP levels tended to have lower levels of repetitive use of objects (Rho = -0.231, P = 0.079). Unlike the findings in children, maternal plasma OXT levels showed no group difference. However, plasma AVP levels in the mothers of ASD children tended to be lower than in the mothers of normal children (P = 0.072). In conclusion, our results suggest that the OXT system is dysregulated in children with ASD, and that OXT and AVP levels in plasma seem to be associated with specific autistic symptoms. The plasma levels of OXT or AVP in mothers and their ASD children did not seem to change in the same direction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasma Oxytocin and Arginine-Vasopressin Levels in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China: Associations with Symptoms

Zhang

Dai

et al. 2016

Neurosci. Bull.

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“…The neurological and endocrine bases for social motivation and affective bonding in infants (e. g., Bowlby 1969 p. 203-204;Moriceau and Sullivan 2005;Grossmann et al 2008) and children (e. g., Bartz and Hollander 2008) have been much less studied than those in mothers (e. g., Strathern et al 2009), though their relevance for understanding mother-child interactions should be no less consequential. Studies of plasma oxytocin levels in autism have yielded unusual results: two studies found lower plasma oxytocin in children with autism (Modahl et al 1998;Green et al 2001), but unexpectedly, oxytocin levels were positively associated with degree of social impairment (Modahl et al 1998); in the single study of adults, autistic individuals showed significantly higher levels of plasma oxytocin than did controls (Jansen et al 2006). Might oxytocin in autistics subserve, to some degree, positive reinforcement of non-social stimuli, or might epigenetically-based reduction of oxytocin receptor expression (Gregory et al 2009) follow from early social-19 interaction deficits?…”

Section: Autism and Attachmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Strategies of the Genes: Genomic Conflicts, Attachment Theory, and Development of the Social Brain

Crespi

2011

Brain, Behavior and Epigenetics

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I describe and evaluate the hypothesis that effects from parent-offspring conflict and genomic imprinting on human neurodevelopment and behavior are central to evolved systems of mother-child attachment. The psychological constructs of Bowlby's attachment theory provide phenomenological descriptions of how attachment orchestrates affective-cognitive development, and patterns of imprinted gene expression and co-expression provide evidence of epigenetic and evolutionary underpinnings to human growth and neurodevelopment. Social-environmental perturbations to the development of normally-secure attachment, and alterations to evolved systems of parent-offspring conflict and imprinted-gene effects, are expected to lead to specific forms of maladaptation, manifest in psychiatric conditions affecting social-brain development. In particular, under-development of the social brain in autism may be mediated in part by mechanisms that lead to physically enhanced yet psychologically under-developed attachment to the mother, and affective-psychotic conditions, such as schizophrenia and depression, may be mediated in part by forms of insecure attachment and by increased relative effects of the maternal brain, both directly from mothers and via imprinted-gene effects in offspring. These hypotheses are concordant with findings from epidemiology, attachment theory, psychiatry, and genetic and epigenetic analyses of risk factors for autism and affective-psychotic conditions, they make novel predictions for explaining the causes of psychosis in Prader-Willi syndrome and idiopathic schizophrenia, and they suggest avenues for therapeutic interventions based on normalizing alterations to epigenetic networks and targeting public-health interventions towards reduction of perturbations to the development of secure attachment in early childhood and individuation during adolescence.

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“…A fourth study reported no overall group differences (16), and a fifth study reported that plasma OXT concentrations are higher in individuals with ASD compared with control participants (17). Relationships between plasma OXT concentrations and measures of social functioning in these small samples were either not analyzed (14,15) or not found (17) or were evident only in subsets of individuals (16). Additionally, one study paradoxically reported inverse relationships between plasma OXT concentrations and social competence in ASD (a negative relationship) and control (a positive relationship) children (13).…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Three studies reported that plasma OXT concentrations are lower in individuals with ASD compared with control participants (13)(14)(15). A fourth study reported no overall group differences (16), and a fifth study reported that plasma OXT concentrations are higher in individuals with ASD compared with control participants (17). Relationships between plasma OXT concentrations and measures of social functioning in these small samples were either not analyzed (14,15) or not found (17) or were evident only in subsets of individuals (16).…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Plasma oxytocin concentrations and OXTR polymorphisms predict social impairments in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

Parker¹,

Garner

Libove³

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

203

184

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The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) and its receptor (OXTR) regulate social functioning in animals and humans. Initial clinical research suggests that dysregulated plasma OXT concentrations and/or OXTR SNPs may be biomarkers of social impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We do not know, however, whether OXT dysregulation is unique to ASD or whether OXT biology influences social functioning more generally, thus contributing to, but not causing, ASD phenotypes. To distinguish between these possibilities, we tested in a child ASD cohort, which included unaffected siblings and unrelated neurotypical controls (ages 3-12 y; n = 193), whether plasma OXT concentrations and OXTR SNPs (i) interact to produce ASD phenotypes, (ii) exert differential phenotypic effects in ASD vs. non-ASD children, or (iii) have similar phenotypic effects independent of disease status. In the largest cohort tested to date, we found no evidence to support the OXT deficit hypothesis of ASD. Rather, OXT concentrations strongly and positively predicted theory of mind and social communication performance in all groups. Furthermore, OXT concentrations showed significant heritability between ASD-discordant siblings (h 2 = 85.5%); a heritability estimate on par with that of height in humans. Finally, carriers of the "G" allele of rs53576 showed impaired affect recognition performance and carriers of the "A" allele of rs2254298 exhibited greater global social impairments in all groups. These findings indicate that OXT biology is not uniquely associated with ASD, but instead exerts independent, additive, and highly heritable influences on individual differences in human social functioning, including the severe social impairments which characterize ASD. T he neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) and its receptor (OXTR) regulate affiliative motivation, social bonding, and social recognition in animals (1, 2). Preclinical research likewise has shown that individual differences in OXT biology (e.g., OXT concentrations, OXTR distribution in key brain regions) are associated with individual differences in social functioning (3-6). At the extreme, experimental manipulations that diminish OXT peptide and/or receptor signaling produce a variety of social deficits in animal models (7,8).Translation of this animal research to neurotypical populations has confirmed that OXT administration enhances social functioning in humans (9, 10). Individual differences in endogenous OXT concentrations are also positively correlated with social behavior measures (11, 12), such that lower OXT concentrations are frequently associated with diminished social functioning even within neurotypical cohorts. This research has led to the hypothesis that abnormalities in OXT peptide biology may be directly related to social impairments observed in clinical populations, particularly in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who exhibit core deficits in social interactions and preferences, eye contact, facial recognition, empathy, and social communication.Several studies have begun to exp...

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Autonomic and Neuroendocrine Responses to a Psychosocial Stressor in Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 164 publications

References 33 publications

Plasma Oxytocin and Arginine-Vasopressin Levels in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China: Associations with Symptoms

Plasma Oxytocin and Arginine-Vasopressin Levels in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China: Associations with Symptoms

The Strategies of the Genes: Genomic Conflicts, Attachment Theory, and Development of the Social Brain

Plasma oxytocin concentrations and OXTR polymorphisms predict social impairments in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

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