The ‘love hormone’ oxytocin needs a scientific makeover, and left-handed kangaroos don’t have autism.

The hormone oxytocin is proceeding into clinical trials for people with the autism-linked disorder Phelan-McDermid syndrome, researchers revealed yesterday at the 2015 International Meeting for Autism Research in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Understanding how oxytocin works in the brain will help researchers cut through the hype surrounding the infamous ‘love hormone’ and translate it into a treatment for autism, says Larry Young.

Some newborn horses have features of autism, and researchers argue over who first described the disorder.

Oxytocin has long been eyed as a treatment for autism, but trials in people with the disorder have yielded conflicting results. A new study bolsters the case for the so-called ‘trust hormone’ as an autism therapy, finding that it eases social deficits in a mouse model of the disorder.

Monkeys living in natural groups show individual variations in social behavior that may help scientists understand autism and identify treatments for the disorder, according to unpublished studies presented at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Oxytocin may influence social behavior by priming brain circuits in a region of the hippocampus important for social memory, according to preliminary results presented yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Like people, monkeys vary widely in their social abilities. Behavioral neuroscientist Karen Parker explains how studying social behavior in monkeys can advance how we understand and treat autism.

Watch the complete replay of Robert Malenka’s webinar on the molecular underpinnings of social reward.

A fine, inhaled mist may be the most effective way to deliver oxytocin — a hormone involved in social bonding — to the brain, reports a study on monkeys published 3 March in Psychoneuroendocrinology.