Intermediate 
According to American researchers, a nasal spray containing the Love hormone oxytocin could help children with autism behave more normally in social situations. Scans of autistic children showed that a single dose of the chemical improved brain responses to facial expressions. This is something that could make social interactions feel more natural and rewarding for them.
The researchers said oxytocin might increase the success of behavioural therapies that are already used to help people with autism learn to cope with social situations. Over time, what you would expect to see is more normal social responding, being more interested in interacting with other people, more eye contact and more conversation, said Kevin Pelphrey, of Yale University.
Autism is a developmental disorder that more than one in 100 people have. The condition affects people in different ways, but leads to difficulties in social interaction and communication. So far, there is no established treatment for the social problems caused by autism.
Researchers at Yale have studied the brain chemical oxytocin as a possible treatment for the social problems caused by autism because it plays an important role in bonding and trust. Results have been mixed, though: one recent study found no significant benefit for young people given the chemical over several days. But Pelphrey said oxytocin might help the brain learn from social interactions; it would work best when used with therapies that encourage people with autism to interact more socially, he said.
The scientists scanned the brains of 17 young people aged eight to 16 with autism while they looked at images of cars or the eyes of people expressing different emotions. The scans were given 45 minutes after the young people inhaled a placebo or oxytocin through a nasal spray.
The scans showed that the reward circuits in the childrens brains behaved more normally after a dose of oxytocin: that is, they were more active when the person was looking at faces and less active when looking at the inanimate cars. The study appears in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
The study suggests that oxytocin might treat something for which we dont have a treatment in autism, and thats the core social motivation, said Pelphrey. He warned that it was too early to use oxytocin as a treatment for the social difficulties caused by autism and said people should not buy oxytocin online. We dont want them trying oxytocin at home. Its impossible to say what they are buying. We are nowhere near thinking this is a ready treatment. It needs more follow-up, he said. This is an important new study in identifying changes in brain activity in key areas of the brain, said Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University.
A surprising finding, however, is that oxytocin nasal spray did not change performance in social recognition tasks. And, it is also not yet clear if oxytocin only has benefits for people with autism or has any unwanted side effects. Finally, oxytocin effects only last about 45 minutes, so there may be practical considerations as to whether this could be used as a treatment.
From a scientific perspective, this study has a lot of evidence from animal and human work to justify serious attention, but more research is needed. Doctors should be cautious about the potential of this hormone until we know much more about its benefits and risks, in much larger studies. Said Simon Baron-Cohen.
Uta Frith, who studies autism at University College London, said: According to this study, oxytocin may have the effect of making faces more interesting. Disappointingly, this effect is seen only in brain activity and not in behaviour. Demonstrating an effect on behaviour will be critical if nasal spray treatment is to be of any value.