6月6日VOA聽力：巴基斯坦出於平安斟酌增強入境掌握
A nasal spray device with the hormone oxytocinshows promise in helping people with certain typesof mental illness improve their social skills.
Oxytocin has been shown to play a role in relievinganxiety and promoting feelings of contentment.
To test the nasal device, scientists at the Universityof Oslo hospital in Norway worked with Optinose, aNorwegian biotechnology company.
"The patient inserts it into the mouth and one nostril," explained Dr. Per Djupesland, Optinose'sco-founder. "The patient takes a deep breath, closes the lips around the mouthpiece, andexhales into the device. The airflow carries the drug particles deep into the nose."
That means the oxytocin can get into the central nervous system faster, making it moreeffective.
The device can also spray small doses of oxytocin, which is considered safer for the patient.
"A lot of mental illnesses are characterized by deficits in social dysfunction, such as autism andschizophrenia," said Daniel Quintana, a research fellow at the Oslo hospital. "But there aren'tany actual treatments which specifically target social dysfunction. So oxytocin has actuallygenerated a lot of interest in its potential to treat social dysfunction."
Previous research shows that even with just a single dose of oxytocin, people are more likely tolook directly at someone, rather than avoid the gaze.
"Most information, when it comes to how others are thinking and feeling is transmitted throughthis eye region," Quintana said, "so by improving gaze to the eye region, you improve yourability to understand how others are thinking and feeling."
The Oslo scientists asked volunteer patients to react to photos of people with happy, angryand neutral facial expressions.
"In our experiment, we found that people who were administered a low dose of intranasalocytocin rated the neutral faces as less angry, compared to when they were given the placebospray," Quintana said.
The team will continue its research by giving autistic patients a low dose of oxytocin twice aday.
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