title: Acute oxytocin improves memory and gaze following in male but not female nursery-reared infant macaques.
abstract: Exogenous oxytocin administration is widely reported to improve social cognition in human and nonhuman primate adults. Risk factors of impaired social cognition, however, emerge in infancy. Early interventions-when plasticity is greatest-are critical to reverse negative outcomes.
  
  
  
  We tested the hypothesis that oxytocin may exert similar positive effects on infant social cognition, as in adults. To test this idea, we assessed the effectiveness of acute, aerosolized oxytocin on two foundational social cognitive skills: working memory (i.e., ability to briefly hold and process information) and social gaze (i.e., tracking the direction of others' gaze) in 1-month-old nursery-reared macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta). We did not predict sex differences, but we included sex as a factor in our analyses to test whether our effects would be generalizable across both males and females.
  
  
  
  In a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, we found that females were more socially skilled at baseline compared to males, and that oxytocin improved working memory and gaze following, but only in males.
  
  
  
  These sex differences, while unexpected, may be due to interactions with gonadal steroids and may be relevant to sexually dimorphic disorders of social cognition, such as male-biased autism spectrum disorder, for which oxytocin has been proposed as a potential treatment. In sum, we report the first evidence that oxytocin may influence primate infant cognitive abilities. Moreover, these behavioral effects appear sexually dimorphic, highlighting the importance of considering sex differences. Oxytocin effects observed in one sex may not be generalizable to the other sex.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce De Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL, 33124, USA. simpsone@miami.edu.|Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Poolesville, MD, USA. simpsone@miami.edu.|Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy. simpsone@miami.edu.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Poolesville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paukner
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Poolesville, MD, USA.|Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy.|School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sclafani
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Poolesville, MD, USA.|Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy.|Department of Population Health and Reproduction, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Stefano S K
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kaburu
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Poolesville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Suomi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy.|Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, CNRS / Université Claude Bernard Lyon, Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Pier F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Ferrari
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000187:drug effects*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects*; D009724:Nurseries, Infant; D010120:Oxytocics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception
chemical_list: D010120:Oxytocics; D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: Cognitive; Development; Individual differences; Infancy; Intranasal oxytocin; Primate