Oxytocin increases VTA activation to infant and sexual stimuli in nulliparous and postpartum women

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The goal of this study was to describe the roles of oxytocin and parity on reward area activation in response to reproductive stimuli, specifically infant and sexual images.

To test this, the researchers measured VTA and NAc activation using fMRI in response to infant photos, sexual photos, and neutral photos in 29 postpartum and 30 nulliparous women.

Why It Was Studied

Oxytocin was chosen as a potential mediator of reproductive trade-offs because of its relationship to both mother-infant interactions, including breastfeeding and bonding, and sexual responses.

Participants completed the Sexual Inhibition (SIS) and Sexual Excitation (SES) Scales and the Brief Index of Sexual Function for Women (BISF-W), which includes a sexual desire dimension, and received either oxytocin or placebo nasal spray before viewing crying and smiling infant and sexual images in an fMRI scanner.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 30 women were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as infants, young adults and adults, women only.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Oxytocin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Oxytocin could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Emotions, Libido, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Mother-Child Relations, Nucleus Accumbens, Object Attachment and Oxytocin.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Postpartum, Reward, Sexual and infant stimuli and Ventral tegmental area.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 30 women.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2015 (Hormones and behavior), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.