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Oral Oxytocin's Effects on Attention Control

Not Applicable
Conditions
Healthy
Interventions
Drug: Oral Placebo
Registration Number
NCT04493515
Lead Sponsor
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Brief Summary

The main aim of the study is to investigate whether orally administered oxytocin (24IU) could modulate attention control using a social-emotional saccade/antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm.

Detailed Description

Numerous studies have reported the effect of intranasally administered oxytocin on attentional processing including stimulus-driven bottom-up processing and top-down goal-directed inhibitory control. However, it is unclear whether the functional effects are mediated by the peptide directly entering the brain or indirectly via raising peripheral concentrations. One possible method of producing a similar pattern of increased peripheral oxytocin concentrations but without the possibility of direct entry into the brain would be to administer the peptide lingually. In the present double-blind, between-subject, placebo-controlled study, 80 healthy male subjects will be recruited and receive either oxytocin (24IU) or placebo control administered orally (lingual). 45 minutes after treatment subjects are required to complete a social-emotional saccade/antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm. This paradigm uses social (happy, sad, angry, fear, and neutral faces) as well as non-social (oval shapes) stimuli to explore social- and emotion-specific effects of orally administered oxytocin.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
UNKNOWN
Sex
Male
Target Recruitment
80
Inclusion Criteria
  • Male, healthy participants
  • Non smokers
Exclusion Criteria
  • Previous or current medical, psychiatric, neurological disorder
  • Regular medication
  • Use of any psychoactive substances in the 24 hours before experiment
  • Contra-indications for oxytocin
  • Contra-indications for eye-tracking data acquisition

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Oral OxytocinOral OxytocinOxytocin orally (24 IU)
Oral PlaceboOral PlaceboPlacebo orally (24 IU, identical ingredients, except the active agent)
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Effect of oral oxytocin administration on saccade/antisaccade latencies towards social (facial) versus non-social (shape) stimuli45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment

Comparison between social-specific saccade/antisaccade latencies (in milliseconds) between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions

Effect of oral oxytocin administration on error rates of saccade/antisaccade for social (facial) versus non-social (shape) stimuli45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment

Comparison between social-specific error rates of saccade/antisaccade between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Emotion-specific effects of oral oxytocin administration on saccade/antisaccade latencies towards the separate facial emotions45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment

Comparison between emotion-specific saccade/antisaccade latencies (in milliseconds) between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions

Emotion-specific effects of oral oxytocin administration on saccade/antisaccade error rates for the separate facial emotions45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment

Comparison between emotion-specific saccade/antisaccade error rates between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China(UESTC)

🇨🇳

Chengdu, Sichuan, China

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