Effect of Oxytocin on Masked Facial Expressions: an fMRI Study
Effect of Oxytocin on Masked Facial Expressions: an fMRI Study
The purpose is to test whether oxytocin has an effect on masked facial expressions
The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been shown to modulate several aspects of human social
 cognition. Although the exact mechanisms behind these effects remain unclear, recent research
 suggests that OXT modulates the perception of cues that are important for interpersonal
 processing, particularly emotional facial expressions. Using a backward masking procedure and
 functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the modulatory effects of intranasal
 OXT on the processing of sub-liminally presented emotional faces. In a double-blind
 placebo-controlled between-subject pharmaco-fMRI experiment healthy volunteers received
 either 24IU of intranasal oxytocin or placebo 45mins before they were presented emotional
 (happy, angry, fearful, sad, disgusting) faces and mirror-reversed neutral faces masked by
 neutral faces of the same individual. To ensure attentional processing of the faces subjects
 were required to perform a simple gender decision task in the scanner and a recognition
 memory task afterwards. All subjects were additionally assessed for their state and trait
 anxiety and depression as well as empathy. For the analysis, we will use matlab, SPM and SPSS
 to conduct structural ROI analysis and two Sample t test.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Healthy subjects, no smoke or drink alcohol, coffee or other stimulants during the day
 before Experiment.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  history of head injury; pregnancy; uterine cavity operations were took within one
 year; medical or psychiatric illness; rhinitis in case they may not fully absorb the
 spray.