Trial reportInternational journal of obesity (2005)2020
Oxytocin reduces the functional connectivity between brain regions involved in eating behavior in men with overweight and obesity.
Trial report in International journal of obesity (2005), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- A comprehensive analysis of oxytocin: a potential brain-based treatment to regulate obesity.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Neuroimaging Investigations of Obesity: a Review of the Treatment of Sex from 2010.Current obesity reports · 2023Pooled it
- Intranasal Oxytocin for Obesity.NEJM evidence · 2024Trial
- Harnessing food cue evoked neuroimaging towards treatment optimisation for obesity and binge eating disorder.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
- Oxytocin levels do not change around a meal and correlate with reward-driven caloric consumption in adults with obesity.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Oxytocin Deficiency in Childhood and Adolescence: Clinical Features, Diagnostic Challenges and Therapeutic Perspectives.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- The Oxytocin System and Implications for Oxytocin Deficiency in Hypothalamic-Pituitary Disease.Endocrine reviews · 2025Review
- A personalized approach to understanding food cravings and intake: a study protocol.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Understanding oxytocin in human physiology and pathophysiology: A path towards therapeutics.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Review
- The neurohypophyseal hormone oxytocin and eating behaviors: a narrative review.Hormones (Athens, Greece) · 2024Review
- Oxytocin response to food intake in avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.European journal of endocrinology · 2023Article
- The Neurobiology of Eating Behavior in Obesity: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets: A Report from the 23rd Annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2023Article
- Current Insights into the Potential Role of fMRI in Discovering the Mechanisms Underlying Obesity.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Brain functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging of obesity and weight loss interventions.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Review
- Peripherally restricted oxytocin is sufficient to reduce food intake and motivation, while CNS entry is required for locomotor and taste avoidance effects.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2023Article
- Pharmacological Support for the Treatment of Obesity-Present and Future.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The Long Way of Oxytocin from the Uterus to the Heart in 70 Years from Its Discovery.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 8-week intranasal oxytocin administration in adults with obesity: Rationale, study design, and methods.Contemporary clinical trials · 2022Article
- Oxytocin as a potential pharmacological tool to combat obesity.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2022Review
- Crosstalk between Schizophrenia and Metabolic Syndrome: The Role of Oxytocinergic Dysfunction.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOxytocin (OXT), shown to decrease food intake in animal models and men, is a promising novel treatment for obesity. We have shown that in men with overweight and obesity, intranasal (IN) OXT reduced the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygenation level-dependent signal in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the origin of the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system, in response to high-calorie food vs. nonfood images. Here, we employed functional connectivity fMRI analysis, which measures the synchrony in activation between neural systems in a context-dependent manner. We hypothesized that OXT would attenuate the functional connectivity of the VTA with key food motivation brain areas only when participants viewed high-calorie food stimuli.
methodsThis randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled crossover study of 24 IU IN OXT included ten men with overweight or obesity (mean ± SEM BMI: 28.9 ± 0.8 kg/m
resultsFollowing OXT administration, compared with placebo, participants exhibited significantly attenuated functional connectivity between the VTA and the insula, oral somatosensory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, operculum, and middle temporal gyrus in response to viewing high-calorie foods (Z ≥ 3.1, cluster-corrected, p < 0.05). There was no difference in functional connectivity between VTA and these brain areas when comparing OXT and placebo for low-calorie food, nonfood, and fixation images.
conclusionIn men with overweight and obesity, OXT attenuates the functional connectivity between the VTA and food motivation brain regions in response to high-calorie visual food images. These findings could partially explain the observed anorexigenic effect of OXT, providing insight into the mechanism through which OXT ameliorates food cue-induced reward anticipation in patients with obesity. Additional studies are ongoing to further delineate the anorexigenic effect of OXT in obesity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.