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.