A researcher’s existential crisis led to a scientific breakthrough.

Genetic factors could help explain why the ‘social hormone’ failed to benefit autistic people in a phase 3 clinical trial last year.

Infusions of the hormone oxytocin may make mice that model autism more social by normalizing their brain activity patterns.

Oxytocin, cemented in the popular imagination as the “love molecule,” could serve as a treatment for some autistic people who naturally have low levels of the hormone, researchers say.

The hormone is no better than placebo at boosting social behavior in autistic children, according to a new study, but it may still benefit a subset of people with the condition.

In this edition of Null and Noteworthy, tests of intranasal oxytocin and an Angelman syndrome treatment fail to see results.

Treating mice missing the autism-linked gene CNTNAP2 with a strain of gut bacteria makes them more social but no less hyperactive.

To guard against hype, scientists studying oxytocin’s role in autism and its potential as a treatment need to embrace robust theories, rigorous delivery methods and reproducible research practices.

Model fish seem to spend more time swimming solo than wildtype zebrafish do, and neurochemicals in their brains respond differently to social interactions.

Intranasal oxytocin may spur new neuron growth and changes in social behavior after a few weeks.