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Oxytocin enhances processing of positive versus negative emotional information in healthy male volunteers
Abstract
Animal studies have shown the role of oxytocin in affiliation and attachment, and recent evidence suggests that oxytocin is also involved in human models of approach behaviour, possibly by modulating the processing of emotionally valenced stimuli. Although oxytocin administration has been reported to decrease neural responses to facial emotional information, the effects on a wider range of behavioural measures of emotional processing shown to be sensitive to antidepressant manipulation have not been examined. The aim of this study was to investigate whether intranasally administered oxytocin affects the processing of positive and negative affective information in healthy male volunteers across tasks measuring attention, perception and memory. Twenty-nine male healthy volunteers were randomly allocated to receive a single dose of oxytocin nasal spray (24 UI) or placebo. 50 min later, participants completed a battery of psychological tests measuring emotional processing. A single dose of intranasally administered oxytocin slowed reaction time to correctly identify fearful facial expressions and reduced the misclassification of positive emotions as negative ones. These effects occurred in the absence of significant differences in subjective ratings of mood and anxiety. These results suggest that oxytocin modulates emotion processing in healthy male volunteers. This action may contribute to the emerging role of the neuropeptide in promoting affiliative and approach behaviours by reducing the salience of potentially ambiguous and threatening social stimuli.
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In the citing paper
“a detrimental effect on fear perception (Di Simplicio et al., 2009)”
From Oxytocin enhances pupil dilation and sensitivity to 'hidden' emotional expressions (2013) · cites this paper as Di Simplicio et al., 2009
In the citing paper
“Some have reported enhanced empathic accuracy towards only positive (Di Simplicio et al., 2009;Marsh et al., 2010) or negative emotions (Fischer-Shofty et al., 2010), some have found that the effect is strongest for difficult items (Domes et al., 2007) and others the opposite (Guastella et al., 2010;Schulze et al., 2011).”
From Oxytocin enhances pupil dilation and sensitivity to 'hidden' emotional expressions (2013) · cites this paper as Di Simplicio et al., 2009
In the citing paper
“Several avenues of research, employing a range of stimuli and tasks, have reported that intranasal oxytocin treatment enhances the recognition accuracy of one or more emotions displayed in others' faces (Domes et al., 2007;Di Simplicio et al., 2009;Bartz et al., 2010;Fischer-Shofty et al., 2010;Guastella et al., 2010;Marsh et al., 2010;Schulze et al., 2011).”
From Oxytocin enhances pupil dilation and sensitivity to 'hidden' emotional expressions (2013) · cites this paper as Di Simplicio et al., 2009
In the citing paper
“slows down the recognition of fear [13]”
From A direct examination of the effect of intranasal administration of oxytocin on approach-avoidance motor responses to emotional stimuli (2013) · cites this paper as [13]
In the citing paper
“findings from studies using lower level tasks administered after OT ingestion (RTs to emotion stimuli and emotion recognition tasks, for example) tend to be mixed and sometimes inconsistent [13], [10], [14], [11], [12].”
From A direct examination of the effect of intranasal administration of oxytocin on approach-avoidance motor responses to emotional stimuli (2013) · cites this paper as [13]
In the citing paper
“Consistent with most previous studies, we found no effects of oxytocin on mood (Di Simplicio et al., 2009, Fischer-Shofty et al., 2010, Kirsch et al., 2005, Marsh et al., 2010).”
From Oxytocin decreases aversion to angry faces in an associative learning task (2010) · cites this paper as Di Simplicio et al., 2009
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Metadata
- Authors
- Di Simplicio, M., Massey-Chase, R., Cowen, P., & Harmer, C.
- Affiliations
- Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry Section, University of Siena, Siena, Italy; Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Warneford Hospital (GB)
- Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Venue
- Journal of Psychopharmacology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-09-18
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 241-248
- ISSN
- 0269-8811 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7285
- OpenAlex
- W2060752188
- Cited by
- 229
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 19.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Psychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Keywords
- oxytocin, emotional processing, positive and negative affect, facial emotion recognition, fearful faces, intranasal administration, approach behavior, affiliative behavior, attention, memory, reaction time, male volunteers
- MeSH terms
- Administration, Intranasal, Adolescent, Adult, Emotions, Facial Expression, Fear, Humans, Male, Oxytocics, Oxytocin, Reaction Time, Mental Recall, Visual Perception, Recognition, Psychology, Young Adult
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