Barchi-Ferreira A M, Osório F L
Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Brazil; National Institute for Science and Technology (INCT-TM, CNPq), Brasília, Brazil.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2021 Jul;129:105268. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105268. Epub 2021 May 13.
This is a systematic review about the association between empathic behavior and oxytocin (OXT). Searches were conducted in the electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, SciELO, and LILACS using the search terms "oxytocin", "empathy", and "empathic". Forty-four studies were reviewed. Scarce findings point to a lack of association between baseline endogenous OXT levels and empathy traits, and for a trend towards a direct relationship between oxytocinergic reactivity and empathic functioning. The results showed that variations in empathy were related to polymorphisms in the OXT receptor gene, especially in rs53576, and that this relationship seems to mediated by individual, ethnic, and cultural characteristics. Most studies on the exogenous administration of OXT tested a single dose (24 IU) with positive effects mainly on the affective domain of empathy. At the neural level, findings were inconsistent. Taken together, the results of the studies reviewed support the existence of a relationship between OXT and empathy that is complex and multifaceted. Robust evidence is still needed to elucidate existing links. Future investigations could benefit from methodological improvements aimed at increasing the reproducibility and applicability of findings, as well as the systematic assessment of the effects of exogenous OXT considering dose and frequency of administration, genotyping, and hormonal availability at the peripheral and central levels. This should lead to significant progress in the understanding of the therapeutic possibilities of OXT in the domain of empathic behavior.
这是一项关于共情行为与催产素（OXT）之间关联的系统评价。我们使用搜索词“催产素”“共情”和“共情的”在电子数据库PubMed、科学网、心理学文摘数据库、科学电子图书馆在线和拉丁美洲及加勒比地区卫生科学数据库中进行了检索。共审查了44项研究。稀少的研究结果表明，内源性OXT基线水平与共情特质之间缺乏关联，且催产素能反应性与共情功能之间存在直接关系的趋势。结果显示，共情的变化与OXT受体基因的多态性有关，尤其是rs53576，并且这种关系似乎由个体、种族和文化特征介导。大多数关于外源性给予OXT的研究测试了单一剂量（24 IU），其主要对共情的情感领域有积极影响。在神经层面，研究结果并不一致。综合来看，所审查研究的结果支持OXT与共情之间存在复杂且多方面的关系。仍需要有力证据来阐明现有的联系。未来的研究可能会受益于方法学的改进，旨在提高研究结果的可重复性和适用性，以及对外源性OXT的效应进行系统评估，同时考虑给药剂量和频率、基因分型以及外周和中枢水平上的激素可用性。这将在理解OXT在共情行为领域的治疗可能性方面取得重大进展。
