The DOI matches its Crossref record; 53 of the 53 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 29 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
Is Ecstasy an “Empathogen”? Effects of +/- 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine on Prosocial Feelings and Identification of Emotional States in Others
Open accessAbstract
Background Users of ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), "ecstasy," report that the drug produces unusual psychological effects, including increased empathy and prosocial feelings. These "empathogenic" effects are cited as reasons for recreational ecstasy use and also form the basis for the proposed use of MDMA in psychotherapy. However, they have yet to be characterized in controlled studies. Here, we investigate effects of MDMA on an important social cognitive capacity, the identification of emotional expression in others, and on socially relevant mood states.Methods Over four sessions, healthy ecstasy-using volunteers (n = 21) received MDMA (.75, 1.5 mg/kg), methamphetamine (METH) (20 mg), and placebo under double-blind, randomized conditions. They completed self-report ratings of relevant affective states and undertook tasks in which they identified emotions from images of faces, pictures of eyes, and vocal cues.Results MDMA (1.5 mg/kg) significantly increased ratings of feeling "loving" and "friendly", and MDMA (.75 mg/kg) increased "loneliness". Both MDMA (1.5 mg/kg) and METH increased "playfulness"; only METH increased "sociability". MDMA (1.5 mg/kg) robustly decreased accuracy of facial fear recognition relative to placebo.Conclusions The drug MDMA increased "empathogenic" feelings but reduced accurate identification of threat-related facial emotional signals in others, findings consistent with increased social approach behavior rather than empathy. This effect of MDMA on social cognition has implications for both recreational and therapeutic use. In recreational users, acute drug effects might alter social risk-taking while intoxicated. Socioemotional processing alterations such as those documented here might underlie possible psychotherapeutic benefits of this drug; further investigation of such mechanisms could inform treatment design to maximize active components of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.
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16 Not checked yet · 15 Own result · 12 Own interpretation · 8 Own method · 1 No basis given
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“MDMA1.5 increasing playfulness relative to PBO and MDMA0.75”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
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“MDMA did not affect accuracy on the Eyes or the DANVA-2 tests (Table 1).”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
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“There was no interaction between drug condition and emotion type on DANVA-2 scores.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“MDMA1.5 significantly increased loving and friendliness ratings”
- Also stated in: § RESULTS · hedged
“Follow-up analyses indicated that MDMA1.5 increased loving feelings relative to PBO.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Also stated in: § RESULTS · hedged
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In the paper
“Post-hoc analysis showed that MDMA0.75 increased loneliness ratings relative to METH and PBO”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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“MDMA1.5 increased the tendency to misclassify emotional expressions as neutral, compared to PBO (p < 0.05, uncorrected; Table 1).”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“After Bonferroni correction of the Type 1 error rate, simple main effects analysis did not yield significant effects of drug on identification of angry, happy, neutral, or sad faces.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“METH increased sociability relative to PBO”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“There was a significant interaction between drug condition and emotion on the FER accuracy of emotion identification (F(5.2, 104.6) = 3.23, p = 0.008).”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
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In the paper
“METH increasing playfulness compared to PBO.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > RESULTS
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- It may state two separate claims as one. 17
- Probably not a substantial claim. 13
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“whereas MDMA (1.5mg/kg) significantly increased loving feelings and friendliness compared to placebo, these ratings were not significantly different from ratings on methamphetamine.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
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In the paper
“MDMA’s apparent empathogenic effects are also central to the rationale for the use of the drug as a psychotherapeutic adjunct [1, 5–6].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > INTRODUCTION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [1] Parrott, 2007, The psychotherapeutic potential of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine): An evidence-based review, Psychopharmacology source
- Not checked yetcites [5] Holland, 2001
- Not checked yetcites [6] Johansen, 2009, How could ecstasy help anxiety disorders?, J Psychopharmacol source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“Truncation of two outlying data points (both in DANVA scores) did not alter results and original data were retained.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Statistical Analyses
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
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In the paper
“Compliance was verified with urine (QuickTox Drug Screen Dipcard, Branan Medical Corporation, Irvine, CA), saliva (Oratect III, Branan Medical Corporation) and breathalyzer (Alco-sensor III, Intoximeters, St. Louis, MO) screens.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Experimental Protocol
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“Drug doses were selected based on previous research; MDMA doses in this low-to-moderate range have been safely administered to humans previously, and produce modest to robust alterations in mood state [24].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Experimental Protocol
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [24] Dumont, 2006, A review of acute effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetmine in healthy volunteers, J Psychopharmacol source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“MDMA (±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, ‘ecstasy’) is reported to have unusual, so-called ‘empathogenic’ effects, such as increased empathy and prosocial feelings [e.g. see 1].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > INTRODUCTION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [1] Parrott, 2007, The psychotherapeutic potential of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine): An evidence-based review, Psychopharmacology source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“Participants started cognitive tasks (e.g. emotional recognition) 65 minutes after capsule administration, to coincide with peak drug effect onset [26].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Experimental Protocol
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [26] Cami, 2000, Human pharmacology of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“ecstasy”): Psychomotor performance and subjective effects, J Clin Psychopharmacol source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“For the current study, we selected a methamphetamine dose (20mg) that is safe, and induces robust stimulant and euphoric effects, in amphetamine-naive volunteers [27].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Experimental Protocol
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [27] Wachtel, 2002, The effects of acute haloperidol or risperidone on subjective responses to methamphetamine in healthy volunteers, Drug Alcohol Depend source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“These studies indicate that MDMA increases feelings related to empathy and sociability, including self-rated friendliness [7–8], extroversion [9–10], closeness to others [11], sociability [7, 12], talkativeness [7–8], amicability, and gregariousness [13], although some of these effects are inconsistent [14–16].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > INTRODUCTION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [7] Tancer, 2003, Reinforcing, subjective, and physiological effects of MDMA in humans: A comparison with d-amphetamine and mCPP, Drug Alcohol Depend source
- Not checked yetcites [8] Tancer, 2007, The effects of fluoxetine on the subjective and physiological effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in humans, Psychopharmacology source
- Not checked yetcites [9] Vollenweider, 1999, Opposite effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on sensorimotor gating in rats versus healthy humans, Psychopharmacology source
- Not checked yetcites [10] Liechti, 2000, Psychological and physiological effects of MDMA (“ecstasy”) after pretreatment with the 5-HT-sub-2 antagonist ketanserin in healthy humans, Neuropsychopharmacology source
- Not checked yetcites [14] Liechti, 2000, Acute psychological effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “ecstasy”) are attenuated by the serotonin uptake inhibitor citalopram, Neuropsychopharmacology source
- Not checked yetcites [15] Johanson, 2006, Discriminative stimulus effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in humans trained to discriminate among d-amphetamine, meta-chlorophenylpiperazine and placebo, Drug Alcohol Depend source
- Not checked yetcites [16] Harris, 2002, Subjective and hormonal effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in humans, Psychopharmacology source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Session order did not have a significant effect in any of the analyses, and was therefore not retained in the models.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Statistical Analyses
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Using fMRI, we recently reported effects of MDMA on neural processing of social material [12], but in that study the drug did not alter the behavioral response to the stimuli (i.e. accuracy of identification of emotions from pictures of facial effect).”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > INTRODUCTION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [12] Bedi, 2009, Effects of MDMA on sociability and neural response to social threat and social reward, Psychopharmacology source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Data for four outcome measures were non-normal (VAS Loving, VAS Lonely, POMS Friendly, and DANVA scores). In these cases, we conducted non-parametric analysis (Friedman’s ANOVA followed by Wilcoxon signed rank tests). In all cases except VAS Lonely, the non-parametric approach yielded the same results; therefore parametric statistics are reported. For VAS Lonely, non-parametric statistics yielded”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Statistical Analyses
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The Eyes test is sensitive to oxytocin administration [33].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Assessment Measures
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [33] Domes, 2007, Oxytocin improves “mind-reading” in humans, Biol Psychiatry source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Such effects are cited as a motivation to use ecstasy recreationally [2–3] and may contribute to its reinforcing capacity [4].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > INTRODUCTION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [2] Thompson, 2007, A role for oxytocin and 5-HT(1A) receptors in the prosocial effects of 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“ecstasy”), Neuroscience source
- Not checked yetcites [3] Sumnall, 2006, The varieties of ecstasy experience: An exploration of the subjective experiences of ecstasy, J Psychopharmacol source
- Not checked yetcites [4] McGregor, 2008, From ultrasocial to antisocial: A role for oxytocin in the acute reinforcing effects and long-term adverse consequences of drug use?, Br J Pharmacol source
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Identification of others’ emotions based on facial, vocal or postural cues is a critical social cognitive capacity and an important ‘first step’ in empathy [17]”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > INTRODUCTION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [17] Clark, 2008, Autism and the extraction of emotion from briefly presented facial expressions: Stumbling at the first step of empathy, Emotion source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A 4-session, within-participants, double-blind design was employed.”
- Also stated in: § Experimental Protocol · plain
“capsules were administered in randomized order.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Experimental Protocol
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § Experimental Protocol · plain
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The emotional expressions shown were not subtle [18], they were presented for a long period (4 seconds) [17], and we selected a relatively narrow range of basic emotions (e.g. fear, anger and happiness [19]), excluding more complex, culturally-determined affective states, such as shame and jealousy [20].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > INTRODUCTION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [18] Philippot, 2003, Nonverbal deficits and interpersonal regulation in alcoholics
- Not checked yetcites [17] Clark, 2008, Autism and the extraction of emotion from briefly presented facial expressions: Stumbling at the first step of empathy, Emotion source
- Not checked yetcites [19] Ekman, 2003
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“reductions in the intensity of fear perception, including but not limited to those reported here, might facilitate engagement with traumatic material during therapy [49].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [49] Mithoefer, 2010, The safety and efficacy of ± 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder: The first randomized, controlled pilot study [published online ahead of print July 19], J Psychopharmacol
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We found that MDMA (1.5mg/kg only) altered a behavioral indicator of social cognition. Specifically, it robustly reduced recognition of fearful faces, without changing recognition of other emotions from facial or vocal cues.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“For instance, compromised social cognition may increase social risk-taking while under the influence of the drug.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The effect of MDMA on social cognition was limited to identification of emotions from facial expressions, with no apparent effect on recognition of affective cues from the eye region or from voices.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The FER, Eyes, and DANVA-2 tasks are comparable in their sensitivity to MDMA's effects on emotion recognition.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A third possible limitation was that we adjusted the dose to the body weight for MDMA but not for methamphetamine. This is unlikely to be a major factor because participants were within a narrow weight range (BMI 18.5 – 30), and post-hoc analysis indicated that only one measure of methamphetamine’s effects (playfulness) correlated with body weight (r = − 0.45, p = 0.04).”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Second, we are not aware of tasks that include both social and non-social stimuli, making it difficult to determine the specificity of these findings to social stimuli.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“we found that MDMA (1.5mg/kg) increased the number of non-neutral faces erroneously identified as neutral, apparently reducing the capacity to detect subtle emotional signals.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“For example, the static photos of facial affect we employed may be less ecologically valid than dynamic stimuli [e.g. see 41].”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > DISCUSSION
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [41] Zaki, 2008, It takes two: The interpersonal nature of empathic accuracy, Psychol Sci source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper relies on this without support.
Participants' guesses about which drug they received are a valid index of their expectancies.
“There was no significant relationship between drug identification and any of the measures that were sensitive to drug effects.”
“suggesting that expectancies play a minor role in these results.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The FER, Eyes, and DANVA-2 tasks are comparable in their sensitivity to MDMA's effects on emotion recognition.
“The effect of MDMA on social cognition was limited to identification of emotions from facial expressions, with no apparent effect on recognition of affective cues from the eye region or from voices.”
“whereas the facial task required participants to identify emotions based on subtle, briefly presented pictures, there were no time limits on responding to items in the Eyes task.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The study had sufficient statistical power to detect the reported effects and to support the null findings.
“Over four sessions, healthy ecstasy-using volunteers (N=21) received MDMA (0.75mg/kg; 1.5mg/kg), methamphetamine (20mg; METH), and placebo (PBO) under double-blind, randomized conditions.”
“MDMA did not affect accuracy on the Eyes or the DANVA-2 tests (Table 1).”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“This is in line with further results showing that 1.5 mg/kg but not 0.75 mg/kg MDMA decreased the accuracy of fear recognition (55) and anger and fear recognition (36).”
From Modulation of Social Cognition via Hallucinogens and “Entactogens” (2019) · cites this paper as [55]
In the citing paper
“In line with results obtained with the MET, two studies did not find an effect of MDMA (0.75 mg/kg, 1.5 mg/kg, and 75 mg) on the RMET (52, 55).”
From Modulation of Social Cognition via Hallucinogens and “Entactogens” (2019) · cites this paper as [55]
In the citing paper
“The increased empathy for positive emotions and decreased recognition of negative emotions shown in these studies is in line with the interpretation by Bedi et al. (55) that a decreased ability to identify negative emotions might facilitate social approach behavior and thus social interaction.”
From Modulation of Social Cognition via Hallucinogens and “Entactogens” (2019) · cites this paper as [55]
Statistics recomputed
Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.
- Not confirmedF(5.2, 104.6) = 3.23reported p = .008 · recomputed p = .009
“F(5.2, 104.6) = 3.23, p = .008”
- ConsistentF(3, 57) = 5.04reported p = .004 · recomputed p = .004
“F(3,57) = 5.04, p = .004”
- ConsistentF(2.7, 51) = 6.81reported p = .001 · recomputed p < .001
“F(2.7,51) = 6.81, p = .001”
- Consistentχ²(3) = 11.94reported p = .008 · recomputed p = .008
“χ2(3) = 11.94, p = .008”
- ConsistentF(3, 57) = 8.57reported p < .001 · recomputed p < .001
“F(3,57) = 8.57, p < .001”
- ConsistentF(2.5, 47.7) = 3.06reported p < .05 · recomputed p = .045
“F(2.5, 47.7) = 3.06, p < .05”
- ConsistentF(2.8, 56) = 4.45reported p = .008 · recomputed p = .008
“F(2.8, 56.0) = 4.45, p = .008”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Experimental Protocol
“Tancer et al. (2003) used d-amphetamine 10mg and 20mg, and reported overlapping reinforcing and subjective effects of MDMA (2mg/kg) and 20mg amphetamine, although in many cases MDMA (2mg) produced higher ratings.”
§ Is ecstasy an ‘empathogen’? Effects of MDMA on prosocial feelings and identification of emotional states in others > METHODS AND MATERIALS > Experimental Protocol
“MDMA (2mg/kg) and 20mg amphetamine”
Citations
Cites
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Discovering Statistics Using SPSS
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“Identification of complex emotions used the Reading the Mind in the Eyes - Revised test (Eyes test) [21].”
Ekman, P. (1976) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 4,345
Baron‐Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S. J., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001) · PubMed · Cited by 4,313
DSM-IV: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Bell, C. C. (1994) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1994.03520100096046 · Cited by 2,608
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Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life
Ekman, P. (2003) · Cited by 1,599
Oxytocin improves “mind-reading” in humans
Domes, G., Heinrichs, M., Michel, A., Berger, C., & Herpertz, S. C. (2007) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.015 · Cited by 1,298
Mithoefer, M. C., Wagner, M. T., Mithoefer, A. T., Jerome, L., & Doblin, R. (2011) · Journal of Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1177/0269881110378371 · Cited by 674
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Serotonin and brain function: a tale of two receptors
Carhart-Harris, R., & Nutt, D. (2017) · Journal of Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1177/0269881117725915 · Cited by 739
Mithoefer, M. C., Wagner, M. T., Mithoefer, A. T., Jerome, L., Martin, S. F., Yazar‐Klosinski, B., Michel, Y., Brewerton, T. D., & Doblin, R. (2012) · Journal of Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1177/0269881112456611 · Cited by 399
A new three-dimensional model for emotions and monoamine neurotransmitters
Lövheim, H. (2011) · Medical Hypotheses · doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2011.11.016 · Cited by 396
Psychedelics reopen the social reward learning critical period
Nardou, R., Sawyer, E., Song, Y. J., Wilkinson, M., Padovan-Hernandez, Y., de Deus, J. L., Wright, N., Lama, C., Faltin, S., Goff, L. A., et al. (2023) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06204-3 · Cited by 358
MDMA enhances emotional empathy and prosocial behavior
Hysek, C. M., Schmid, Y., Simmler, L. D., Domes, G., Heinrichs, M., Eisenegger, C., Preller, K. H., Quednow, B. B., & Liechti, M. E. (2014) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nst161 · Cited by 356
Metadata
- Authors
- Bedi, G., Hyman, D., & de Wit, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bedi, Gillinder
- ORCID
- Bedi, Gillinder
- Venue
- Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-12
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1134-1140
- ISSN
- 0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2997873
- OpenAlex
- W1994271186
- Cited by
- 247
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 10.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA02812)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Toxicology › Forensic Toxicology and Drug Analysis
- Keywords
- MDMA, ecstasy, emotion recognition, methamphetamine, social cognition, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, social approach behavior, loneliness, playfulness, sociability, recreational drug use
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Empathy, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Male, Methamphetamine, Photic Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine, Self Report
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-09-28, under version 3 of the claim definition (prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-09-28 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
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