A hormone may treat children with autism, revealed the Australian researchers. The Autism Spectrum Disorders in children fail to recognize emotions in others as well.

According to a study, published in Biological Psychiatry, adolescents with autism were given a single dose each of the hormone or placebo through nasal spray and later on they were asked to complete a facial expression task that was designed to measure emotion recognition. They performed better when they received the hormone, oxytocin.

It has been known for assisting labor, delivery and breastfeeding and it also affects brain function. But the study revealed that this hormone is also important in promoting trust, love as well as social recognition.

Dr. Adam Guastella of the University of Sydney said, "It is also the first to show the benefits of oxytocin nasal spray in young people, suggesting potential for earlier intervention where there may be greater opportunity to improve development".

He shared that though this had been a very small study, so one should not use oxytocin outside of supervised clinical trial research.