Plasma Oxytocin Is Not Associated with Social Cognition or Behavior in Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Syndromes

Emma G Johnson; Wytse Kuiper; Rebekah M Ahmed; Glenda M Halliday; James R Burrell; John R Hodges; Adam J Guastella; Olivier Piguet; Fiona Kumfor

doi:10.1159/000525087

Plasma Oxytocin Is Not Associated with Social Cognition or Behavior in Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease Syndromes

Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2022;51(3):241-248. doi: 10.1159/000525087. Epub 2022 Jun 15.

Authors

Emma G Johnson^{1

2}, Wytse Kuiper³, Rebekah M Ahmed^{2

4}, Glenda M Halliday^{2

4}, James R Burrell^{2

5

6}, John R Hodges^{2

4}, Adam J Guastella^{2

7}, Olivier Piguet^{1

2}, Fiona Kumfor^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
² Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
³ Department of Neurology, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁴ Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney Central Clinical School, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁵ The University of Sydney Concord Clinical School, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁶ Concord General Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁷ Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

PMID: 35705005
DOI: 10.1159/000525087

Abstract

Introduction: Changes in social behavior and emotion processing are common in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and semantic dementia (SD), and less so in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent research has investigated oxytocin as a potential treatment for these symptoms; however, whether plasma oxytocin is associated with social-emotional symptoms of dementia remains underexplored.

Methods: Thirty behavioral-variant FTD (bvFTD), 28 SD, 39 AD, and 24 controls underwent blood sampling to measure oxytocin. Participants completed an emotion processing battery. Carers completed the Cambridge Behavioral Inventory and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory.

Results: Patients with bvFTD were severely impaired in emotion processing and behavioral ratings, with milder impairment in SD and AD. No difference in plasma oxytocin was observed between groups (p = 0.632). No significant associations were found between oxytocin and social behavior or emotion processing (r values between -0.241 and 0.227, all p values >0.099).

Conclusion: Our results indicate that plasma oxytocin is not reduced in dementia and is unrelated to social, emotional, and behavioral features. We noted high interindividual variability in our data; hence, future investigations should consider methodological influences such as serum versus saliva and diurnal variation on oxytocin function. These results demonstrate that current measurement measures of plasma oxytocin have limited utility in determining the role of oxytocin in FTD. Alternative oxytocin measures may prove more sensitive and should be considered when conducting clinical trials.

Keywords: Behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia; Emotion processing; Hypothalamus; Social cognition.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease* / diagnosis
Alzheimer Disease* / psychology
Frontotemporal Dementia* / diagnosis
Frontotemporal Dementia* / psychology
Humans
Neuropsychological Tests
Oxytocin* / blood
Social Behavior
Social Cognition*

Substances

Oxytocin