Oxytocin's Effects on Behavior and Neural Activity During Social Cognition Tasks

It has long been established that interpersonal relationships can have a profound impact on health and well-being. Yet, the investigators are still learning about the complex biological processes that contribute to positive social interactions and the ability to develop and maintain social relationships. Recent research has begun to focus on oxytocin, a neuropeptide that is naturally produced in the hypothalamus, because administration of this neuropeptide has been associated with increased trust, generosity, empathy, cooperation, memory of social stimuli (e.g., faces), and brain activity in neural regions associated with social and emotional processes. To date, several aspects of oxytocin's effects on social behavior have been unexplored. As such, the overarching goal of this project is to examine the effects of intranasal oxytocin on several tasks involving social processes. In addition, the investigators will explore associated neural activity through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Understanding how oxytocin influences these aspects of social functioning will help to inform research that has begun to establish the potential for use of this neuropeptide in education as well as psychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia that are characterized by social deficits.

The investigators hypothesize that compared to placebo, oxytocin will improve deception detection, increase empathy and altruism, and enhance responses to photo stimuli of primary caregivers. These effects will manifest in behavioral and neural activity. It is also hypothesized that main effects will not be found for oxytocin, but rather, analyses of relevant moderators will elucidate these findings.