empathy and emotional processing
Conditions
Interventions
A nasal oxytocin spray is administered once containing 24 IU oxytocin (6 puffs). This will be compared with a placebo nasal spray in a cross-over design. Thirty minutes after nasal spray administratio
Sponsors
Performer, Leiden University Medical Centre
Eligibility
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Male; 2. Age 18 - 35; 3. Healthy (see exclusion criteria).
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Major physical illness such as heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetis, epilepsy, liver disease, or any other serious medical condition; 2. Current or past (< 5 years) psychiatric disorders, as assessed by selfreport; 3. Medication use that can interfere with the study; 4. Use of more than 3 glasses of alcohol per day; 5. Use of more than 10 cigarettes per day; 6. Use of hard drugs; 7. Common use of soft drugs (cannabis) - at least once per week in the last 3 months.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Electromyographic (EMG) responses to presented happy and angry faces; 2. Attentional bias to happy and anxious faces over neutral faces; 3. The amount of distraction by emotional pictures compared to neutral pictures during a working memory task. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The effect of oxytocin administration will be compared between subjects that score high or low on questionnaires measuring, anxiety, depression, empathy and autistic traits. | — |
Contacts
Public ContactMarieke S. Tollenaar
Wassenaarseweg 52
Outcome results
None listed