Thoughts on oxytocin
Oxytocin is associated with the way NTs "group up". It makes you want to bond with someone and trust them, while rejecting anyone outside your group.
So, oxytocin is involved with bonding and trust, and also with prejudice.
I think the oxytocin/autism picture is going to be more complex than it seems at first glance. For example, autistic people are known to trust too much--the opposite of what an oxytocin deficiency would imply. And we are securely bonded with our parents, the same as neurotypical children are--meaning that we don't have issues with bonding, either.
My personal hypothesis? The "oxytocin deficiency" in autistic brains is an effect, not a cause, of our social skills delays. Because we don't connect as easily, we simply don't have the opportunity to produce oxytocin as often as NTs do--but when we do connect, we seem to find it as rewarding as NTs do. Only when oxytocin is associated with real social connections is it actually useful. Otherwise, it would be like telling your brain, "Trust; bond; form groups," indiscriminately. And that can be dangerous. Ask an autistic with an active-but-odd social style what happens when you trust everybody and see everybody as a friend; they'll probably have some pretty painful anecdotes.
What I think this means for everyday autistic life is that messing with oxytocin directly may not actually be too productive in the absence of social phobia. Autistics without social phobia seem to experience social interaction as being rewarding but overwhelming, and for them, the oxytocin comes naturally with successful social interaction--meaning that the best approaches would involve helping them make social connections to begin with; the oxytocin response would facilitate bonding quite normally once those connections were established. With people who have social phobia, the oxytocin might help, because it skews the social outlook toward trust and away from fear--but this would be true for social phobics whether they were autistic or not.
My basic opinion is that oxytocin is interesting to study and relevant to understanding socialization, but has practical applications mostly for people with social phobia. For people with autism in general, a more fundamental approach involving making social contact easier and less stressful would be preferable--a combination of speech/language therapy and communication-related accommodations that teach us how to connect with others and provide places where connections are more easily and simply made.
So, oxytocin is involved with bonding and trust, and also with prejudice.
I think the oxytocin/autism picture is going to be more complex than it seems at first glance. For example, autistic people are known to trust too much--the opposite of what an oxytocin deficiency would imply. And we are securely bonded with our parents, the same as neurotypical children are--meaning that we don't have issues with bonding, either.
My personal hypothesis? The "oxytocin deficiency" in autistic brains is an effect, not a cause, of our social skills delays. Because we don't connect as easily, we simply don't have the opportunity to produce oxytocin as often as NTs do--but when we do connect, we seem to find it as rewarding as NTs do. Only when oxytocin is associated with real social connections is it actually useful. Otherwise, it would be like telling your brain, "Trust; bond; form groups," indiscriminately. And that can be dangerous. Ask an autistic with an active-but-odd social style what happens when you trust everybody and see everybody as a friend; they'll probably have some pretty painful anecdotes.
What I think this means for everyday autistic life is that messing with oxytocin directly may not actually be too productive in the absence of social phobia. Autistics without social phobia seem to experience social interaction as being rewarding but overwhelming, and for them, the oxytocin comes naturally with successful social interaction--meaning that the best approaches would involve helping them make social connections to begin with; the oxytocin response would facilitate bonding quite normally once those connections were established. With people who have social phobia, the oxytocin might help, because it skews the social outlook toward trust and away from fear--but this would be true for social phobics whether they were autistic or not.
My basic opinion is that oxytocin is interesting to study and relevant to understanding socialization, but has practical applications mostly for people with social phobia. For people with autism in general, a more fundamental approach involving making social contact easier and less stressful would be preferable--a combination of speech/language therapy and communication-related accommodations that teach us how to connect with others and provide places where connections are more easily and simply made.