Differential Effects of Vasopressin and Oxytocin on Attention Control

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Status: Completed

Conditions: Healthy

Treatments: Drug: Placebo; Drug: Oxytocin; Drug: Vasopressin

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04715737

UESTC-neuSCAN-76

Details and patient eligibility

About

The main aim of the present study is to investigate whether intranasal vasopressin (20IU) and oxytocin (24IU) have differential effects on attention control in a social-emotional saccade/antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm.

Full description

Previous studies have demonstrated intranasal vasopressin and oxytocin's divergent effects on social behavior and emotion processing such as empathy and negative emotion processing, however, it remains unclear whether vasopressin and oxytocin treatment would have differential effects on attention processing to social stimuli. Based on the previous registered studies (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04493554 and NCT03486925) from our group using a validated emotional anti-saccade task with social stimuli (emotional faces) and non-social stimuli (oval shape) have separately explored intranasal vasopressin and oxytocin's modulatory effects on attention processing, the present study aims to conduct a secondary analysis of the previously acquired data to directly compare vasopressin and oxytocin's effects on attention control to social emotional stimuli. To this end data from subjects who underwent intranasal oxytocin administration (n = 33; NCT03486925) will be compared with data from subjects who underwent intranasal vasopressin or placebo administration (n = 39, or 45 respectively; NCT04493554). To further control for non-treatment related factors the intranasal placebo groups from the previous studies (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04493554 and NCT03486925) will be compared with respect to primary and secondary outcome measures of the trial, in particular general and emotion-specific effects on attentional control.

Enrollment: 160 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 30 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

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

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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160 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Vasopressin

Experimental group

Description:

Vasopressin (20IU) intranasally

Treatment:

Drug: Vasopressin

Oxytocin

Experimental group

Description:

Oxytocin (24IU) intranasally

Treatment:

Drug: Oxytocin

Placebo

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Placebo intranasally

Treatment:

Drug: Placebo