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Oxytocin and Social Phobia By HBC Protocols Trust
even after betrayal -- quite difficult isn't it? But a new sublingual
oxytocin will make it possible by filling the brain with
'love hormones' which will make people learn to trust again after
betrayal. Scientists
from Zurich University said their findings may
also help in understanding the neural basis of social disorders such as
phobias and autism. They
have demonstrated that people can feel trust
again after being betrayed, by manipulating the parts of the brain that
respond to betrayal. They have pinpointed the two brain regions that
respond to being betrayed or cheated. "Here
something was
'oxytocin.' It's this important chemical which helps in maintaining
equilibrium between forgiving and forgetting with learning from
mistakes." In
another study, Thomas Baumgartner of the
University of Zurich and colleagues conducted
an study using 49 male volunteers who were made to play two types of
games -- a trust game and a risk game. The
volunteers also received
brain chemical, oxytocin or a placebo via nasal spray. They were not
able to tell the difference between the two.
In the
first game of trust, the participants
were asked to give money, with the understanding that the trustee would
invest the money and decide whether to return the profits or betray the
subjects' trust and keep all the money. In the
second game i.e risk
game, the human trustee was replaced by a computer which gave random
returns. The
researchers said that subjects in first game who received
oxytocin were willing to invest again even after their trust was broken
by the trustee, while the placebo group became less willing to invest. While
in the risk game, the hormone made no difference to the players'
investment behavior. "We
can see that oxytocin has a very powerful
effect," Dr Baumgartner said. "The subjects who received oxytocin
demonstrated no change in their trust behavior, even though they were
informed that their trust was not honoured in roughly 50% of cases. "Our
insights into the neural circuitry of trust adaptation and oxytocin's
role in trust adaptation, may also contribute to a deeper understanding
of mental disorders such as social phobia or autism that are associated
with social deficits. "In
particular, social phobia (which is the third
most common mental health disorder) is characterized by persistent fear
and avoidance of social interactions." In the
experiment, researchers found that oxytocin (OT)
decreased activity in two brain regions, only in the trust game and not
in risk game. The
amygdala was the one region in the brain that
processes fear, danger and risk of social betrayal and the other part
was striatum, part of the circuitry that guides behaviour based on
feedback from rewards. Social
phobia or social
anxiety disorder is characterized by extreme and persistent anxiety
associated with social or performance situations. A
person with social
phobia experiences anxiety in situations where they are likely to be
scrutinised and observed by others. They
may have persistent fears
about being judged, criticised, ridiculed or humiliated. Scientists
believe that the amygdala is responsible for the symptoms of social
Phobia as its the central site in the brain that controls fear
responses and produces the symptoms of anxiety disorders.
Cognitive-behavior therapy is useful in treating social phobia. "Oxytocin
has a
very powerful effect," says Dr Baumgartner of the University of Zurich.
Oxytocin lowers activity in the amygdala, a region linked with fear and
danger. The same brain circuits play a role in social disorders. Most
social phobia sufferers receive talk therapy of some kind but recent
studies have shown that oxytocin can speed up the process. "We
now know
for the first time what exactly is going on in the brain when oxytocin
increases trust. We found that oxytocin has a very specific effect in
social situations. It seems to diminish our fears. "Based
on our
results, we can now conclude that a lack of oxytocin is at least one of
the causes for the fear experienced by social phobics." says Dr.
Baumgartner. It is
quite possible that you may not
even know it is happening until you experience that first smile or
other unique cue, and respond appropriately. Read
about and purchase the most researched St. John's Wort
formulation in America; Omega-3
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The brains of the
volunteers were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) during the game. 