The purpose of the Workshop is to highlight new perspectives on the role of oxytocin in modulating brain activity in relation to behavior and cognition. Oxytocin has long been known to exert its influence on delivery and lactation, but it has gained tremendous new interest since the early nineties following the discovery of its effects on social behavior in rodents. The workshop will cover a number of issues related to the brain mechanisms regulating its synthesis and release, and its effects on different aspects of behavior. The precise neural mechanisms of oxytocin are still debated, and it is therefore important to understand how its action could impact different neural circuitry related to reward, anxiety, attention, social perception and bonding. Another goal of the workshop is that of examining the complex interactions between genes and early experience and the potential impact of oxytocin in regulating complex mother-infant social communication. We hope that a variety of animal models will be discussed, including fish, rodents, dogs and nonhuman primates in order to provide an evolutionary perspective and new insights about potential differences among species that have been adapted to specific social and ecological conditions. Lastly, the workshop will foster scientific interactions with the objective to evaluate the clinical implications of oxytocin in neurodevelopmental disorders and its potential application for pharmacotherapy interventions in psychopathologies.
The Workshop goals will be achieved by a program of internationally recognized speakers as well as poster sessions where attendees can present their data and network with all of the Workshop participants.
Oxytocin: a facilitator of long-term cooperative exchange in chimpanzee
Social Reward: basic mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities
Oxytocin and the development of human affiliative bonds in health and psychopathology
Oxytocin, maternal behavior, and synaptic plasticity.
Sensations driving oxytocin neurones toward sociality
Randomised controlled trials of Bremelanotide to increase social cognition and and oxytocin in humans
Translating oxytocin neuroscience to the treatment of anxiety disorders
Oxytocin in cortical control of olfactory perception
Oxytocin: matters of credibility
Oxytocin and vasopressin: Biomarkers of and therapeutics for social impairments in a monkey model and in patients with autism
Oxytocin shapes social interactions in macaques, in part, via amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex
Intranasal oxytocin effects on human brain activity during social interactions.
Lessons Learned from the SOARS-B Randomized Controlled Trial: daily oxytocin or placebo treatment of 289 children, 3-17 years old, with ASD for 24 weeks
Oxytocin in infant social development. A nonhuman primate model
Understanding the mechanisms of action of Oxytocin in human and nonhuman primates. Implications for the treatment of autism
Social peptides in medaka fish
Genes and effects of oxytocin on autistic social behaviors and their neural underpinings
Neurobiology of social bonding, social loss, and empathy: Implications for autism