Oxytocin and Emotion Recognition

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2010-01-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: Male

Summary

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of a single dose of synthetic oxytocin on facial emotion recognition in healthy adult man. Pictures of emotional faces are presented very briefly for a few milliseconds in a backward-masking paradigm in order to vary the level of awareness. In a randomized placebo-controlled between-subject design, recognition performance is compared between a drug (24 IU oxytocin) and a placebo condition. We hypothesize that oxytocin enhances emotion recognition even for facial stimuli processed with limited awareness.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: University Hospital Freiburg
• Treatments: Oxytocin

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Males

• 18 to 40 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any psychiatric diagnosis life-time

• Somatic disease

• IQ < 85

• Smoker

• Psychoactive medication