Oxytocin and social pretreatment have similar effects on processing of negative emotional faces in healthy adult males

Abstract

Oxytocin has been shown to affect several aspects of human social cognition, including facial emotion processing. There is also evidence that social stimuli (such as eye-contact) can effectively modulate endogenous oxytocin levels. In the present study we directly tested whether intranasal oxytocin administration and pre-treatment with social stimuli had similar effects on face processing at the behavioral level. Subjects (N = 52 healthy adult males) were presented with a set of faces with expressions of different valence (negative, neutral, positive) following different types of pretreatment (oxytocin—OT or placebo—PL and social interaction—Soc or no social interaction—NSoc, N = 13 in each) and were asked to rate all faces for perceived emotion and trustworthiness. On the next day subjects' recognition memory was tested on a set of neutral faces and additionally they had to again rate each face for trustworthiness and emotion. Subjects in both the OT and the Soc pretreatment group (as compared to the PL and to the NSoc groups) gave higher emotion and trustworthiness scores for faces with negative emotional expression. Moreover, 24 h later, subjects in the OT and Soc groups (unlike in control groups) gave lower trustworthiness scores for previously negative faces, than for faces previously seen as emotionally neutral or positive. In sum these results provide the first direct evidence of the similar effects of intranasal oxytocin administration and social stimulation on the perception of negative facial emotions as well as on the delayed recall of negative emotional information.

Oxytocin facilitates reciprocity in social communication

“…Accordingly, heightened generosity ( van Baaren et al , 2003 ) and visual preference or affiliative behaviors towards an imitating person ( Field et al , 2001 ) may thus depend on increased OXT secretion in the imitated person. In fact, it has been reported that a social interaction pretreatment has a similar effect as the intranasal administration of OXT on the processing of negative emotional faces ( Kis et al , 2013 ). Against this background, therapeutic interventions fostering imitation or synchronization in general ( Koehne et al , 2016 ), may constitute an efficient non-pharmacological probe to increase OXT levels and improve social skills.…”

Oxytocin-enforced norm compliance reduces xenophobic outgroup rejection

“…The rationale of Experiment 1 was to generate normative cues for altruistic responding toward refugees. For this purpose, [40][41][42][43][44][45] min before the start of the donation task. The placebo solution contained the identical ingredients except the peptide itself.…”

Effects of Oxytocin and Vasopressin on Preferential Brain Responses to Negative Social Feedback

“…Depending on the experimental task, however, oxytocin also influences neural activity in other brain regions, including temporoparietal junction (TPJ) (Domes et al, 2007), ventral prefrontal cortex (PFC), fusiform (Petrovic et al, 2008), and insula (Striepens et al, 2012), suggesting that oxytocin's regional neural influence is context-specific. Such oxytocin-induced modulations of neural activity may underlie oxytocin's anxiolytic and prosocial effects in humans (Evans et al, 2010;Heinrichs et al, 2003;Kis et al, 2013;Kosfeld et al, 2005;Norman et al, 2011;Petrovic et al, 2008;Theodoridou et al, 2009). Human vasopressin studies are less abundant; however, several investigations support opposing roles of oxytocin and vasopressin, with the latter being associated with aggression and anxiogenic behaviors (Ebstein et al, 2009;Thompson et al, 2004).…”