Does oxytocin have a role in the neurobiology of Huntington’s disease?
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1
Monash University, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Australia
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2
Monash University, Monash Biomedical Imaging, Australia
Background: Emotion processing deficits are a core feature of Huntington’s disease (HD) and have been linked to amygdala dysfunction. The amygdala is also the brain region with the highest density of oxytocin receptors. Oxytocin is known for its role social and emotional behaviours, including modulating brain-related responses to emotional cues, such as facial expressions, in healthy and clinical groups. Evidence has suggested that HD is associated with a significant reduction in oxytocin-expression neurons in the hypothalamus, the region of oxytocin production. Therefore, in a double-blind placebo-controlled study, we examined the effects of administering an acute dose of oxytocin, when administered via intranasal spray, on amygdala response to emotional face stimuli using functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.
Methods: Our pilot sample consisted of 4 presymptomatic HD patients and 6 controls, all right-handed males, who were studied at two visits. At each visit, participants received either an acute dose of oxytocin or placebo nasal spray. Participants then performed an emotional face matching task involving trios of Ekman faces and trios of shapes inside the MR scanner. This task is specifically designed to robustly activate the amygdala. In a region of interest approach, we examined whole-amygdala effects as well as effects within the medial, dorsal and ventral subregions of the amygdala. Subjective mood measures were taken before and after each MR scan.
Results: Under placebo treatment, and compared to controls, patients with HD hyper-activated the amygdala to negative, but not positive, emotional faces in bilateral dorsal, right medial and right ventral amygdala. Within the HD group, oxytocin (vs. placebo) treatment increased amygdala activity in response to negative emotions in bilateral dorsal and ventral amygdala, and in response to positive emotions in right medial and bilateral ventral amygdala. Whole-amygdala analyses showed similar oxytocin effects only to negative emotions in the HD group. No oxytocin (vs. placebo) effects were evident in the amygdala within the control group. The findings were observed in the absence of subjective mood changes in all participants.
Discussion: Our results confirmed a hyperactive amygdala reactivity to negative emotional faces in HD under normal, placebo, conditions. An acute dose of intranasal oxytocin showed strong modulatory effects in amygdala-related emotional responses in HD but not in controls. Our results also highlighted the importance of analysing at subregional levels within the amygdala. This intriguing initial evidence of a possible role of oxytocin in emotion processing in HD suggests the need for additional data to clarify the direction and strength of these effects.
Keywords:
emotion,
Oxytocin,
Huntington's disease,
fMRI,
Amygdala
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Emotion and Social
Citation:
Labuschagne
I,
Poudel
G,
Kordaschia
C,
Wu
Q,
Georgiou-Karistianis
N,
Churchyard
A and
Stout
JC
(2013). Does oxytocin have a role in the neurobiology of Huntington’s disease?.
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00100
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Received:
25 Sep 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Izelle Labuschagne, Monash University, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Melbourne, Victoria, 3800, Australia, izelle.labuschagne@acu.edu.au