UNDERSTANDING THE NEUROREGULATORY ACTIONS OF OXYTOCIN AND ITS POTENTIAL CLINICAL APPLICATIONS


May 22-27, 2018
Erice, Sicily, ITALY


Workshop Organizers

Conference goals

Larry Young (Emory University, Atlanta, USA)
Pier Francesco Ferrari (CNRS, Lyon, France)
Jean-René Duhamel (CNRS, Lyon, France)
Angela Sirigu (CNRS, Lyon, France)

Purpose of the Workshop

Conference goals

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.

Speakers & Topics

Catherine Crockford

Oxytocin: a facilitator of long-term cooperative exchange in chimpanzee

Gul Dolen

Social Reward: basic mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities

Ruth Feldman

Oxytocin and the development of human affiliative bonds in health and psychopathology

Robert Froemke

Oxytocin, maternal behavior, and synaptic plasticity.

Valery Grinevich

Sensations driving oxytocin neurones toward sociality

Adam Guastella

Randomised controlled trials of Bremelanotide to increase social cognition and and oxytocin in humans

Rene Hurlemann

Translating oxytocin neuroscience to the treatment of anxiety disorders

Wolfgang Kelsch

Oxytocin in cortical control of olfactory perception

Gareth Leng

Oxytocin: matters of credibility

Karen J Parker

Oxytocin and vasopressin: Biomarkers of and therapeutics for social impairments in a monkey model and in patients with autism

Platt ML

Oxytocin shapes social interactions in macaques, in part, via amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex

James Rilling

Intranasal oxytocin effects on human brain activity during social interactions.

Linmarie Sikich

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

Elisabeth Simpson and Pier Francesco Ferrari

Oxytocin in infant social development. A nonhuman primate model

Angela Sirigu and Jean-René Duhamel

Understanding the mechanisms of action of Oxytocin in human and nonhuman primates. Implications for the treatment of autism

Hideaki Takeuchi

Social peptides in medaka fish

Hidenori Yamasue

Genes and effects of oxytocin on autistic social behaviors and their neural underpinings

Larry Young

Neurobiology of social bonding, social loss, and empathy: Implications for autism