The hypothalamic nonapeptides oxytocin and vasopressin are important modulators of socio-affective behaviours in a wide variety of animal species, including humans. Nevertheless, there is little research addressing their possible roles on socio-affective dimensions of human behaviour across development, during which considerable behavioural and physiological change occurs. Questions still remain about the extent to which findings from adults may directly apply to earlier phases of human development. In this article, we systematically summarize and discuss all existing studies investigating the developmental association of endogenous levels of hypothalamic neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin with human social behaviour or on its disruption in paediatric populations. Evidence is sparse insofar as there are still relatively few developmental studies and limited due to correlational research designs and unreliability of methods currently used for neuropeptide measurements in biological fluids. The findings to date generally converge with adult evidence, but also suggest that important differences between age stages may exist. Further studies focusing these differences may prove critical for informing drug development for socio-affective deficits in paediatric populations.

下丘脑九肽催产素和加压素是包括人类在内的多种动物物种的社会情感行为的重要调节剂。然而，很少有研究探讨它们在整个发展过程中对人类行为的社会影响维度中可能发挥的作用，在此过程中发生了相当大的行为和生理变化。关于成年人的发现可在多大程度上直接适用于人类发展的早期阶段，仍然存在疑问。在本文中，我们系统地总结和讨论了所有现有研究，这些研究调查了内源性下丘脑神经肽催产素和加压素与人类社会行为或其在儿科人群中的破坏之间的发展联系。就相关的研究设计和目前用于生物体液中神经肽测量的方法的不可靠性而言，由于相对较少的开发研究和有限的证据。迄今为止的发现通常与成人证据相吻合，但也表明年龄阶段之间可能存在重要差异。着重研究这些差异的进一步研究可能证明对于开发针对儿童人群的社会情感障碍药物开发至关重要。