Oxytocin's Impact on Emotional Mimicry and Neural Activity in Frontotemporal Dementia Patients to be Evaluated

Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) often experience significant socioemotional deficits, including impaired empathy, emotional recognition, and social behavior, which severely impact their quality of life and caregiver burden. Current treatments primarily focus on symptomatic management, with limited efficacy in addressing these core behavioral and emotional disturbances. Oxytocin, a neuropeptide known for its role in social bonding, empathy, and emotional processing, presents a compelling therapeutic target. Investigating oxytocin's ability to modulate neural activity and emotional responses in FTD could offer a novel approach to mitigating these challenging symptoms, potentially by influencing brain regions involved in social cognition and emotional regulation.

This study is designed as a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the effects of a single dose of intranasal oxytocin versus placebo in patients with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and healthy controls. Participants will receive either intranasal oxytocin or placebo. The primary endpoints include comparing the effects of oxytocin on neural responses to emotional scenes using fMRI scanning between intranasal and oral administration routes, 45-70 minutes post-treatment. Secondary outcomes involve assessing changes in blood oxytocin concentrations after oral oxytocin (before and 30 minutes post-treatment) and evaluating the impact on neural functional connectivity during emotional scene processing.

This study is designed to investigate the potential effects of oxytocin, with results pending. The primary objective is to compare the effects of oxytocin on neural responses to emotional scenes between intranasal and oral administration routes. Researchers aim to identify differences in whole-brain neural (fMRI) activation between these two delivery methods, specifically 45 to 70 minutes after treatment.

The study will assess changes in blood oxytocin concentrations, comparing baseline levels to those 30 minutes after oral treatment administration, to understand systemic absorption. Secondary outcomes include evaluating the effect of oxytocin on neural functional connectivity during the processing of emotional scenes, also within the 45-70 minute post-treatment window. Furthermore, the study plans to explore correlations between observed neural activation patterns and behavioral effects of both intranasal and oral oxytocin, seeking to link physiological changes to emotional and social cognitive improvements in Frontotemporal Dementia patients.