To study whether the administration of oxytocin leads to stronger empathic responses on 3 different empathy-related tasks compared to a placebo.
ID
Source
Brief title
Condition
- Cognitive and attention disorders and disturbances
Synonym
Research involving
Sponsors and support
Intervention
Outcome measures
Primary outcome
- Electromyographic (EMG) responses of the zygomatic major and corrugator
supercilii to presented happy and angry faces.
- Attentional bias to happy and anxious faces over neutral faces
- Amount of distraction by emotional pictures compared to neutral pictures
during a working memory task
Secondary outcome
The effect of oxytocin administration will be compared between subjects that
score high or low on questionnaires measuring, anxiety, depression, empathy and
autistic traits
Background summary
Empathy is a human emotion related to understanding and feeling the emotions of
others. Lately, there has been increasing interest in the neurobiological
backgrounds of empathy. The hormone oxytocin (OT) seems to play an important
role in empathy. Administration of the hormone to humans is related to better
emotion recognition and an increase in positive social interactions.
Furthermore, genetic variants of the OT receptor genes are related to autism, a
disorder characterized by problems in empathic abilities. However, little is
known about the causal relation between oxytocine and empathic behavior in
healthy humans. In this double blind cross-over study we will therefore
investigate the effects of 24 IU intranasal oxytocin administration on implicit
empathic behaviors in healthy male volunteers. More knowledge on the relation
between OT and empathy may stimulate research in disorders characterized by
changes in OT or empathy, like autism and social anxiety.
Study objective
To study whether the administration of oxytocin leads to stronger empathic
responses on 3 different empathy-related tasks compared to a placebo.
Study design
A placebo-controlled double-blind crossover design in which 20 male
participants once receive 24 IU of oxytocin via a nasal spray and once a
placebo nasal spray after which they perform 3 different empathy related tasks.
The sprays are given on 2 separate days.
Intervention
24 IU oxytocine nasal spray versus placebo nasal spray
Study burden and risks
The associated risk and burden by the intranasal oxytocin spray are minimal and
the participants are paid for the time they invest. The mimicry task will give
little burden when the electrodes are stuck to the face. The emotional faces in
the mimicry and attentional bias task are designed to elicit emotional
reactions, but are not strongly arousing. The pictures in the working memory
task may elicit more arousal, but will only be presented briefly (1.5 sec). The
students (mostly in the social sciences) that will participate will learn about
experimental psychological research and will get a summary of the results of
this study.
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden
NL
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden
NL
Listed location countries
Age
Inclusion criteria
Male
Age 18 - 35
Healthy (physical and mental)
Exclusion criteria
Major physical illness such as heart problems, high blood pressure,
diabetis, epilepsy, liver disease, or any other serious medical condition.
Current or past (< 5 years) psychiatric disorders, assessed by selfreport.
Medication use that can interfere with the study.
Use of more than 3 glasses of alcohol per day.
Use of more than 10 cigarettes per day.
Use of hard drugs.
Common use of soft drugs (e.g. cannabis) - at least once per week in the last
3 months.
Design
Recruitment
Medical products/devices used
Followed up by the following (possibly more current) registration
No registrations found.
Other (possibly less up-to-date) registrations in this register
In other registers
| Register | ID |
|---|---|
| EudraCT | EUCTR2011-001708-37-NL |
| CCMO | NL36378.058.11 |
| Other | wordt nog toegekend |
| OMON | NL-OMON22193 |