Andari. (2010) Promoting social behavior with OT in high-functioning ASD

Question 1

What was the dose of OT and how was it administered?

Answer 1

24 IU instranasally (syntocinon spray)

Question 2

What was the overall design of the experiment?

Answer 2

Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, within subjects experimental design

Question 3

Describe the ball-toss game

Answer 3

4 players, 1 patient
- each trial consisted of one ball toss; 80 tosses in total per game.
- each time a player received a ball they gained two euros (the total amount earned was displayed on the screen)
2 outcomes:
1) Player they tossed it to would toss is back and they would gain another 2 euros
2) Player they tossed it would toss it to a different player, allowing them to gain 2 euros

A predetermined number of trials Player A (good) would pass 70% of the time. Player B (neutral) would pass back 30% of the time and Player C (bad) would pass back 10% of the time

Question 4

How was the ball toss game designed to measure social learning?

Answer 4

• The game was designed in such a way to allow the patient to realize who was tossing the ball back to them more often, creating a preference for that player.
• Once patients realized which players were passing them back the ball more often, they would choose to pass the ball to them more so than the other two.
• the patient developed a preference for Player A, passing them the ball more often than the other two.

Question 5

In the ball toss game, there were two rewards for learning. Explain.

Answer 5

• monetary incentive in the first game (2 euros for every ball received)
• Social includison (receiving the ball from another player)

Question 6

How did the decisions of ASD patients given a placebo compare to those of healthy controls in the ball toss game?

Answer 6

Under the placebo treatment, patients showed little evidence that they discriminated the three players cooperative profiles They were unable to figure out that Player A was passing the balls more than the other two.

Healthy subjects sent significantly more balls to the good player than to the neural or bad player (because they were able to recognize that they gained more euros by doing so - could understand the social cues given)

Question 7

How did OT affect the decisions of ASD patients in the ball toss came?

Answer 7

OT intake lead patients to engage more often with the good player and to send significantly more balls to this player as compared with the bad one.
- they were more able to understand the social cues given and respond appropriately

Question 8

Participants were paid for each ball they received. How did the authors rule out the possibility that OT affected behavior by increasing the motivation for money?

Answer 8

They had another group play the game and told them that it was a “friendly game”. There was no monetary incentives available and the patient did not receive feedback about how many balls s/he received.

Question 9

The results showed that OT facilitated social learning. The authors speculate about how this might work and suggest that OT could increase either or both of 2 factors, or constructs, that could facilitate this type of learning. What are these 2 factors?

Answer 9

The patient’s ability to discriminate between the good and bad partners shows that OT facilitated learning, which may in turn results from an increased drive for social affiliation or from an enhancement of reinforcers satisfying this drive.

Question 10

how did the authors measure trust in ASD patients?

Answer 10

Patients had to complete a 7-point rating scale regarding trust and preference towards the other three people scaled to evaluate trust and preference.

Question 11

What was the effect of OT and trust?

Answer 11

OT increased ratings of trust for the good player in both version of the game, involving monetary incentive and no monetary incentive.

Question 12

Did OT increase trust ratings of all 3 players in the ball toss game?

Answer 12

No, OT increased trust ratings of the good player only.

Question 13

A. What tasks were participants asked to do while looking at faces and why?

Answer 13

• asked to determine the gender of the subject in the photo or the direction of the subjects gaze
• OT has been reported to increase the time spent looking at socially important cues - such as they eyes when viewing pictures of human faces
• the tasks were chosen because one requires the subject to look at they eys (determining gaze direction) while the other doesn’t necessarily require looking at they eyes (determining gender)

Question 14

How did OT affect the eye movements and fixations of ASD participants?

Answer 14

OT increased the amount of time the patients spent looking at the face in general, specifically the eyes

Question 15

In the placebo condition, ASD participants produced more saccades than controls when looking at faces. What explanation was offered for this difference? How did OT affect saccade rate?

Answer 15

the authors say that they increase saccade rate was only present when the patients looked at faces directly and not when they explored the rest of the display
they say that the under-exploration of the faces and eyes, in combination with this increased saccade frequency implies that patients explored the images hastily by means of brief fixations, probably with high levels of anxiety or discomfort.

OT significantly decreased the frequency of these saccades

Question 16

Although OT increased the time ASD participants spent looking at the eye region of faces, it did not increase it to the level seen in controls. What explanation was offered for this?

Answer 16

patients given OT did not have half as much OT in their bloodstreams as healthy subjects, which could account for the fact that their gaze time did not increase to the levels of healthy subjects

Question 17

A. Did intranasal OT increase the blood level of OT?

Answer 17

Yes

Question 18

How did the blood levels of OT in ASD participants compare to the blood level in healthy controls who did not receive the OT nasal spray?

Answer 18

It was nowhere near the level of healthy subjects who did not receive the OT nasal spray

Question 19

The authors conclude that OT facilitates prosocial behavior in ASD participants. What mechanisms do they suggest could mediate this effect?

Answer 19

They suggest that oxytocin may favor social engagement behavior by suppression fear and mistrust in patients with autism who possess latent social skills.
they hypothesize that OT facilitates social learning, which may result from an increased drive for social affiliation or some an enhancement of reinforcers satisfying this drive

Question 20

The authors found a great deal of variability in ASD participants’ responses to OT. What was their explanation for this?

Answer 20

They suggest, as other authors have also suggested, that ASD patients may display different social interaction syles: aloof, passive and active-but-odd.

Aloof individuals avoid physical proximity with others and actively reject social contact, ⅘ subjects who showed no positive changes to the ball toss game were of this type

Passive individuals do not reject approaches but do no engage in social relations.

Active-but-odd individuals display approach behavior but in somewhat one-sided or inappropriate manner, 6/8 of the patients who DID show positive changes were of this type.