Clinical trial NCT03577457: The Interaction Between Oxytocin and Serotonin
Official title: The Interaction Between Oxytocin and Serotonin on the Social-reward Brain Networks and Decision Making
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthy
Keywords: oxytocin
serotonin
social reward
decision making
Lead sponsor: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-07-05
Enrollment: 100
Sex: MALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 30
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: The primary objective of this study is to identify any interaction between oxytocin and serotonin on neural and behavioral activity related to social reward and decision making by a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject, pharmacological fMRI design

Detailed description: Serotonin and oxytocin have been proved to play an important role in social reward processing and decision making in human. The aim of this study is to determine whether they interact in those essential human behaviors by a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject, pharmacological fMRI design, in which 4 groups of healthy males will be administered with a random combination of nasal oxytocin (24 international units, IU) or placebo and acute tryptophan depletion (ATD, 75.2g) or placebo (a tryptophan-balanced mixture, 78.2g). The social-reward related neural activity and behavior will be assessed by a series of social reward task in and out of fMRI scanner and the decision making will be assessed by reversal learning task, ultimatum game (UG) and loss aversion task. The interaction between serotonin and oxytocin on brain networks will also be tested by resting state.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorders
* Right-handedness

Exclusion Criteria:

* History of head injury;
* Medical or psychiatric illness.
* High blood pressure, general cardio-vascular alterations
* History of drug or alcohol abuse or addiction.
* Allergy against medications or general strong allergies
* Sleep disorders.
* Visual or motor impairments

Primary outcomes:
measure: Changes in brain neural activity during the social reward processing as assessed via fMRI
timeFrame: approximately 45 minutes after intranasal administration of oxytocin, or placebo, approximately 5.5h after administration of ATD, or placebo
measure: Changes in the resting state as assessed via fMRI
timeFrame: Time Frame: approximately 45 minutes after intranasal administration of oxytocin, or placebo, approximately 5.5h after administration of ATD, or placebo
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Associations with Personalities of subjects
timeFrame: before 30mins ATD or placebo administration
measure: Behavioral performance in decision making task
timeFrame: approximately 4h after administration of ATD, or placebo, before nasal spray
measure: Behavioral performance in social reward related task
timeFrame: approximately 105 minutes after intranasal administration of oxytocin, or placebo, approximately 6.5h after administration of ATD, or placebo
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Beijing
country: China
facility: Beijing Normal University
Study officials:
References: