| Title |
Effects of oxytocin administration on spirituality and emotional responses to meditation
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, June 2016
|
| DOI | 10.1093/scan/nsw078 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Patty Van Cappellen, Baldwin M. Way, Suzannah F. Isgett, Barbara L. Fredrickson |
| Abstract |
The oxytocin (OT) system, critically involved in social bonding, may also impinge on spirituality, which is the belief in a meaningful life imbued with a sense of connection to a Higher Power and/or the world. Midlife male participants (N = 83) were randomly assigned to receive intranasal OT or placebo. In exploratory analyses, participants were also genotyped for polymorphisms in two genes critical for oxytocin signaling, the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR rs53576) and CD38 (rs6449182 and rs3796863). Results showed that intranasal OT increased self-reported spirituality on two separate measures and this effect remained significant a week later. It also boosted participants' experience of specific positive emotions during meditation, at both explicit and implicit levels. Furthermore, the effect of OT on spirituality was moderated by OT-related genotypes. These results provide the first experimental evidence that spirituality, endorsed by millions worldwide, appears to be supported by OT. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 65 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 11 | 17% |
| United Kingdom | 4 | 6% |
| Spain | 3 | 5% |
| France | 2 | 3% |
| Germany | 2 | 3% |
| Australia | 2 | 3% |
| Italy | 2 | 3% |
| Finland | 2 | 3% |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1 | 2% |
| Other | 6 | 9% |
| Unknown | 30 | 46% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 54 | 83% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 7 | 11% |
| Scientists | 4 | 6% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 184 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 4 | 2% |
| Spain | 1 | <1% |
| Brazil | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 178 | 97% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 28 | 15% |
| Student > Master | 28 | 15% |
| Student > Bachelor | 21 | 11% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 19 | 10% |
| Researcher | 18 | 10% |
| Other | 48 | 26% |
| Unknown | 22 | 12% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 70 | 38% |
| Neuroscience | 20 | 11% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 18 | 10% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 8 | 4% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 7 | 4% |
| Other | 33 | 18% |
| Unknown | 28 | 15% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 527. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 September 2023.
All research outputs
#48,245
of 25,750,437 outputs
Outputs from Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience
#10
of 1,817 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#979
of 369,832 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience
#2
of 44 outputs
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