Nasal Oxytocin: Facts and Routes

João Paulo Correia Lima

Abstract

Research about the oxytocin effects over behaviour is growing up and the main technic used in this research is the nasal oxytocin administration, but there is some controversy if the blood-brain barrier could or not stop the oxytocin entrance in the central nervous system. The authors present some arguments and anatomical structures that can permit the oxytocin entrance in the central nervous system despite de blood-brain barrier, describing direct and indirect paths, justifying the data collected in experiments based on nasal oxytocin administration, in a hypothetical way (not yet demonstrated).