Oxytocin Increases Gaze to the Eye Region of Human Faces

In the citing paper

“In humans, intranasal administration of OT was found to increase bonding-related behavior, including gaze to eye region (Guastella et al., 2008), interpersonal trust and empathy (Hurlemann et al., 2010; Kosfeld et al., 2005), and social cognition (Kirsch et al., 2005).”

In the citing paper

“Furthermore, OXT is known to increase gaze directed at the eyes of others (Guastella et al., 2008)”

In the citing paper

“Conversely, giving either an OT-antagonist or a vasopressin antagonist blocked OT-induced partner preferences [54].”

In the citing paper

“IN-OXT has also been shown in an increasing number of studies to change social visual attention in non-clinical populations of humans77–81.”

In the citing paper

“OXT has been shown to increase gaze toward the eye-region of neutral faces (Guastella, Mitchell, & Dadds, 2008)”

In the citing paper

“Such findings have led to the suggestion that OXT might improve prosocial behavior by increasing attention to socially relevant cues (Guastella et al., 2008).”

In the citing paper

“The acute effects of intranasal OT that we found here resemble those found in many human studies, consisting of an increase in pro-social behavior and engagement (specifically time spent in contact in males)(13,15,64–66).”

In the citing paper

“Similar doses of OT have been administered to subjects in previous studies of social functioning (Andari et al., 2010; Feifel et al., 2010; Guastella et al., 2008; Hollander et al., 2007; Ditzen et al., 2009).”

In the citing paper

“Previous studies have employed simulated social games (Andari et al., 2010; Kosfeld et al., 2005), and static social photographs (Guastella et al., 2008) to evaluate the effects of OT on social behaviors.”

In the citing paper

“While the mechanism by which oxytocin facilitates prosocial behavior is unknown, a common view is that oxytocin alters how social signals in the external environment are processed, encoded, and/or interpreted (Bartz et al., 2010a; Ellenbogen, Linnen, Grumet, Cardoso, & Joober, 2012; Guastella, Mitchell, & Dadds, 2008; Marsh, Yu, Pine, & Blair, 2010; Theodoridou, Rowe, Penton-Voak, & Rogers, 2009).”

In the citing paper

“improving social and emotion recognition (Domes et al, 2007b;Guastella et al, 2008;Rimmele et al, 2009)”

In the citing paper

“Research on humans has shown beneficial effects of intranasal oxytocin on performance on tests assessing social cognition2 and gaze to the eye region3.”

In the citing paper

“These results are also consistent with a growing body of research indicating that intranasal oxytocin administration modulates emotion processing2,3,53,54”

In the citing paper

“IN-OT increases gaze time or visual fixation toward the eye region and the face (Auyeung et al. 2015; Domes et al. 2013; Guastella et al. 2008).”

In the citing paper

“For instance, oxytocin has been shown to enhance memory for happy faces relative to angry and neutral faces (Guastella et al., 2008).”

In the citing paper

“No significant differential improvements were observed on changes in parent or experimenter reports of symptoms, or on observed behaviours during interactions.However, it remains unclear whether a lack of effect in this study may be due to the complicated study design.”

In the citing paper

“Guided by other pharmaceutical trials, four randomized placebo-controlled trials of children and adolescents have employed dosages stratified by weight or age.38,49,51,54”

In the citing paper

“A succession of studies reported modest improvements in social cognition after use of nasal oxytocin spray in both neurotypical16, 17, 18 and psychiatric19, 20, 21 populations”

In the citing paper

“Following intranasal OT (Syntocinon spray, Novartis), humans spend more time visually inspecting the eye region of faces compared to placebo (i.e., all inactive ingredients except for the peptide) (Gamer et al., 2010; Guastella et al., 2008).”