The Influence of Oxytocin on Socio-communicative Sensitivity

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2017-07-30
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Male

Summary

Oxytocin (OT) is a neuropeptide that acts as a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator in the brain. Previous studies have shown that intranasal administration of OT improves social cognition and behavior (e.g. emotion recognition). In the current study, we want to gain more insight into the underlying mechanisms by which OT influences emotion recognition. More specifically, we will investigate whether intranasal administration of OT enhances the salience of social (compared to non-social) information and whether it increases the neural sensitivity for subtle socio-emotional cues, by recording scalp electroencephalography (EEG) during Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation (FPVS).

• Phase: Phase 1/Phase 2
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: KU Leuven
• Treatments: Oxytocin

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• age between 18 and 30 years

• male

• right-handed

• typically developing

• Normal or adjusted-to-normal vision (with glasses or lenses)

Exclusion Criteria:

• psychiatric disorder

• neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy, migraine)

• color blindness

• psychoactive medication