Emotion, Mental Health Wellness 1, Social Behavior
Conditions
Keywords
social sharing, social reward, functional magnetic resonance imaging, reward circuit
Brief summary
The aim of the present study is to examine whether the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) influences social reward processing and whether the effects are context- and sex-dependent.
Detailed description
In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, between-subject design healthy volunteers will receive either oxytocin or placebo nasal spray (40IU in 10 puffs). Subjects will come to the experiment in pairs (two friends of the same sex). 45 min after drug administration, the two subjects will simultaneously undergo a social reward task - during the task, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data will be acquired from one of them. During the social reward task subjects will be asked to rate the valence and arousal of emotional pictures in three different conditions: alone, share with a stranger and share with their friend. Before treatment, subjects will complete a range of validated questionnaires to control for potential confounders, such as level of depression (assessed using the BDI) and to explore associations between relevant personality factors and treatment effects, such as adult attachment style (assessed using the AAS).
Interventions
DRUGOxytocin
40IU
DRUGPlacebo
40IU
Sponsors
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
17 Years to 30 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorder, right-handed, had normal or corrected-to normal vision.
Exclusion criteria
* self-reported medication use, substance abuse, and presence of medical or psychiatric disorders
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| fMRI: neural activity during social reward processing | 45-115 minutes after administration | Main effects of treatment will be analyzed on fMRI activity during a social reward processing paradigm. |
| Modulatory effects of sex on fMRI based neural indices during social reward processing | 45-115 minutes after administration | Interaction between treatment effects and sex will be analyzed on fMRI indices acquired during reward processing |
| fMRI: functional connectivity during social reward processing | 45-115 minutes after administration | Main effects of treatment will be analyzed on fMRI connectivity during a social reward processing paradigm. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Modulatory effects of sex on valence ratings during social reward processing | 45-115 minutes after administration | Interactions between treatment and sex will be analyzed on behavioral valence ratings acquired during the social reward processing paradigm. |
| Behavior: arousal ratings during social reward processing | 45-115 minutes after administration | Main effects of treatment will be analyzed on behavioral ratings of arousal acquired during the social reward processing paradigm. |
| Pre-treatment modulators: attachment style (AAS) | 45-115 minutes after administration | Associations between neural and behavioral effects of treatment with pre-treatment attachment style as assessed by the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) |
| Behavior: valence rating during social reward processing | 45-115 minutes after administration | Main effects of treatment will be analyzed on behavioral ratings of valence acquired during the social reward processing paradigm. |
| Modulatory effects of sex on arousal ratings during social reward processing | 45-115 minutes after administration | Interactions between treatment and sex will be analyzed on behavioral arousal ratings acquired during the social reward processing paradigm. |
Countries
China
Contacts
Primary ContactKeith Kendrick, Dr
Backup ContactBenjamin Becker, Dr
Outcome results
None listed