Fathers today: design of a randomized controlled trial examining the role of oxytocin and vasopressin in behavioral and neural responses to infant signals

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin and Vasopressin in this clinical study publication.

The researchers present a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject design to examine the effects of intranasal administration of oxytocin and vasopressin on parenting behavior and the neural and behavioral responses to infant cry sounds and infant threat.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is used to examine the neural processing of infant cry sounds and infant threat.

Why It Was Studied

Previous research has mostly focused on the hormonal, behavioral and neural correlates of maternal caregiving.

In addition, the researchers will test whether effects of oxytocin and vasopressin administration are moderated by fathers' early childhood experiences.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are infants, young children, children and adults, both men and women.

Fifty-five first-time fathers of a child between two and seven months old will participate in three experimental sessions with intervening periods of one to two weeks.

Participants self-administer oxytocin, vasopressin or a placebo.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this Oxytocin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Oxytocin study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Oxytocin group a baseline to be compared against.

Infant-father interactions and protective parenting responses are observed during play.

A handgrip dynamometer is used to measure use of handgrip force when listening to infant cry sounds.

Participants report on their childhood experiences of parental love-withdrawal and abuse and neglect.

What Was Measured

In addition, the researchers will test whether effects of oxytocin and vasopressin administration are moderated by fathers' early childhood experiences.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Brain, Fathers, Hand Strength, Infant Behavior, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurophysins and Oxytocin.

Author keywords: Parenting, Vasopressin and fMRI.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin and Vasopressin.

Results are reported in around 1 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2019 (BMC psychology), a journal based in England.

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