(SALT LAKE CITY)—The velvety voice of Elvis Presley still makes hearts flutter—and in a new study with people who have the rare genetic disorder Williams syndrome, one of the King's classics is among a group of songs that helped to cast light on part of the essence of being human: the mystery of emotion and human interaction.
在Julie R. Korenberg, Ph值.D., M.D., 犹他大学/USTAR教授, 脑电路与儿科, people with and without Williams syndrome (WS) listened to music in a trial to gauge emotional response through the release of oxytocin and arginine vasopressin (AVP), 两种与情绪有关的荷尔蒙. 这项研究发表在2012年6月12日的《大发娱乐》杂志上 《大发娱乐》, signals a paradigm shift both for understanding human emotional and behavioral systems and expediting the treatments of devastating illnesses such as WS, 创伤后应激障碍, 焦虑, 甚至可能是自闭症, 据Korenberg说, 该研究的资深作者，也是世界领先的遗传学专家之一, 大脑, WS的行为.
"Our results could be very important for guiding the treatment of these disorders," Korenberg says. “这可能对个人使用药物来大发娱乐别人产生巨大的影响."
The study also is the first to reveal new genes that control emotional responses and to show that AVP is involved in the response to music.
Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by the deletion of 25 to 28 genes on one copy of chromosome 7. 患有这种疾病的人通过一种独特的视角看待世界. 他们可能把每个人都视为朋友, to the point of running up to total strangers and striking up conversations as though they are old acquaintances. 他们对音乐情有独钟. 但他们也会感到高度焦虑, 平均智商是60, 经历严重的空间视觉问题, 患上心血管和其他健康问题. 尽管他们渴望与人交朋友, 他们在建立和维持社会关系方面有困难, 这是一种完全不为人所知但却能折磨许多没有WS的人的疾病.
Korenberg和来自美国大学的同事, 伊利诺伊大学, 芝加哥, 以及索尔克研究所, 拉霍亚, 加州., 对21名参与者进行了试验, 13名WS患者和8名非WS患者作为对照组. 参与者在洛杉矶的雪松-西奈医疗中心接受评估. 因为众所周知，音乐是一种强烈的情感刺激, 研究人员要求参与者听音乐.
在音乐响起之前, 参与者被抽血以确定催产素的基线水平, and those with WS had three times as much of the hormone as those without the syndrome. Blood also was drawn at regular intervals while the music played and was analyzed afterward to check for real-time, 催产素和AVP水平的快速变化. Other studies have examined how oxytocin affects emotion when artificially introduced into people, 比如通过鼻腔喷雾剂, but this is the one of the first significant studies to measure naturally occurring changes in oxytocin levels in rapid, 实时观察人们的情绪反应.
研究ers asked the first participant to listen to the 1950s Elvis classic, "Love Me Tender.这个女人对这首歌没有任何外在的反应, which can be typical not only of people with WS but particularly of people without the disorder whose faces may be impassive but jump up at the end of an exciting piece, Korenberg指出. 但, 从剩下的测试参与者中引出更大的反应, the researchers invited them to bring their favorite music to listen to—and many of them chose heavy metal. 同样，人们对音乐几乎没有什么外在的反应.
但当分析血液样本时，研究人员感到惊喜. 分析表明催产素水平, 以及较小程度的AVP, had not only increased but begun to bounce among WS participants while among those without WS, 当他们听音乐时，催产素和AVP水平基本保持不变. 有趣的是, the oxytocin level in the woman who'd listened to "Love Me Tender" skyrocketed compared to the levels of participants who listened to different music.
Korenberg believes the blood analyses strongly indicate that oxytocin and AVP are not regulated correctly in people with WS, and that the behavioral characteristics unique to people with WS are related to this problem.
"This shows that oxytocin quite likely is very involved in emotional response," Korenberg says.
确保结果的准确性, those taking the test also were asked to place their hands in 60-degree Fahrenheit water to test for negative stress, 结果和听音乐时的结果是一样的. Those with WS experienced an increase in oxytocin and AVP, while those without the syndrome did not.
Listening to Elvis was part of a larger study that shows for the first time that oxytocin and AVP are poorly regulated in people with WS and that atypical levels of oxytocin are linked to both the desire to seek social interaction and decreased ability to process social clues.
WS is ideal for studying how genes influence social behavior and emotion, 据Korenberg说. 不像其他社会障碍, 威廉姆斯综合症的病因是已知的, 哪一个是确定大脑区域和与疾病相关的基因的关键. 这对于寻找治疗WS的药物靶点也非常重要.
除了听音乐, study participants already had taken three standard social behavior tests that evaluate willingness to approach and speak to strangers, 情绪状态, 以及适应和问题行为的各个领域. Those test results suggest that increased levels of oxytocin are linked to both increased desire to seek social interaction and decreased ability to process social cues, 这是一把双刃剑，有时可能非常有用, 例如, 在求爱, 但对他人造成伤害, 比如威廉姆斯综合症.
"The association between abnormal levels of oxytocin and AVP and altered social behaviors found in people with Williams Syndrome points to surprising, entirely unsuspected deleted genes involved in regulation of these hormones and human sociability,科伦伯格说. "It also suggests that the simple characterization of oxytocin as ‘the love hormone' may be an overreach. 数据描绘了一幅复杂得多的画面."
然而, 前景很乐观, and the study provides a key breakthrough that lights the way to making rapid progress in treating WS, and perhaps Autism and 焦虑 through regulation of these key players in human 大脑 and emotion, 催产素和抗利尿激素. It is important that work in the very near future may allow us to know how to adjust the dial on the OT and AVP system and its effects in different 大脑 regions in ways that relieve suffering and improve the lives of those with the disorder, 据Korenberg说.
特别是, the study results indicate that the missing genes affect the release of oxytocin and AVP through the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. 大约一颗珍珠大小, the hypothalamus is located just above the 大脑 stem and produces hormones that control body temperature, 饥饿, 情绪, 性冲动, 睡眠, 饥饿和干渴, 以及许多腺体释放的荷尔蒙, 包括脑垂体. 脑下垂体, 大约豌豆大小, 控制许多负责激素分泌的腺体. The results of this study points to new clues as to what makes us and may prevent us from being just a bit more human.
李岱博士.D.她是这项研究的主要作者.