Oxytocin and the relation between parenting, fear of failure and ERP.

Love withdrawal is a punishment strategy that involves withholding expected
signals of love and affection when a child misbehaves or fails at a task.
Previous investigations have shown that parental use of love withdrawal can
lead to fear of failure in the child. Individuals high in fear of failure
appear to have learned to define failure as an unacceptable event that carries
negative implications for their self-worth and relational security, leading
them to vigilantly orient to and seek to avoid failure in achievement
situations. The emotion shame plays a central part in this process. In a recent
study, a relation was found between fear of failure and shame-proneness on the
one hand, and the feedback-related negativity (FRN), a brain-response to
feedback, on the other. The FRN is measured using EEG, and is more negative
(i.e. stronger) when feedback is more negative than expected.
We expect that oxytocin can modulate the effects of love withdrawal and
associated fear of failure on the FRN, because it influences socio-emotional
processes that can explain the previously found relation between fear of
failure and the FRN, and because it affects brain areas (anterior cingulate
cortex and insula) that have been related to both the FRN and fear of failure.

With the proposed study we want to gain insight into the neaural mechanisms
underlying (the development of) shame-proneness and fear of failure. We want to
investigate whether the administration of oxytocin modulates effects of love
withdrawal and associated fear of failure on FRN amplitude.

We will employ a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, within-subjects
design: Two groups of subjects, reporting either low or high parental use of
love withdrawal, will take part in two laboratory sessions during which they
complete a computerized feedback-task while the EEG is measured. During one of
these sessions oxytocin will be administered to the subjects and during the
other session a placebo. The order of the sessions will be counterbalanced
across subjects. Neither the subjects nor the investigator conducting the
experiment will know which of the substances is administered.

During one of the laboratory sessions the subjects will take 6 puffs of nasal
spray containing 4 IU/ puff of oxytocin (Syntocinon, Novartis), during the
other 6 puffs of a placebo-spray (NaCl solution).

Questionnaires will be administered to the participants to measure fear of
failure and parental use of love withdrawal (the Love withdrawal-subscale of
the Children*s Report of Parental Behavior (CRPBI) inventory (Schludermann &
Schludermann, 1988) and the Concern over mistakes-subscale of the
Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost et al., 1990)).
The participants will also take part in two 2 1/2 hour laboratory sessions.
During these sessions they will complete a feedback-task (the same task is used
during both sessions), while the EEG is measured. The EEG-measurement is
non-invasive, and with the equipment we use, skin-abrasion is not necessary.
During both sessions the subjects will take 6 puffs of nasal spray, once
containing oxytocin, and once a placebo. Intranasal oxytocin is widely
prescribed in lactating women and is well tolerated. High doses (> 60 IU) of
oxytocin nasal spray may in some cases lead to headache. Based on the single
doses of 24 IU (i.e. 6 puffs, each containing 4 IUof oxytocin) that will be
used during this study and the effects of oxytocin nasal spray in general,
there will be low risk for the participants in this study.