Chapter 16 - Oxytocin in the Developing Brain: Relevance as Disease-Modifying Treatment in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

Among the several neurobiological systems implicated in shaping social behavior, oxytocin (OXT) has been firmly established as a master regulator of the social brain. This has led OXT to be proposed as a drug to ameliorate social deficits in a number of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric conditions including autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). OXT administration has indeed been shown to improve social symptoms in adult ASD patients; even more interestingly, OXT has been shown to regulate key neurodevelopmental events, which suggests that the peptide can modify the onset and progression of ASD symptoms in childhood. We will review here the anatomical and neurochemical basis of these actions, with a special emphasis on the interactions of OXT with other key neurotransmitter systems involved in the regulation of social behavior at the early postnatal developmental stages.