Does Oxytocin Modulate Rewarding Effects in Women and Fluctuating Across the Menstrual Cycle

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Status and phase: Completed; Early Phase 1

Conditions: Healthy

Treatments: Drug: Placebos; Drug: Oxytocin

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03144115

UESTC-neuSCAN-22

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the study is to explore how the rewarding effect of men's verbal compliment is modulated by oxytocin and gonadal hormone in a romantic context.

Full description

To investigate whether oxytocin (24IU) might interact with female sex hormone in modulating the rewarding effect of compliment to women in a romantic context.

The study employs a double-blind, within-subject, placebo-control design. Women will be administered with the same drug twice (oxytocin or placebo) respectively the fertile and luteal phase followed by a MRI scanning. During fMRI participants will rate men's attraction based on their facial pictures of average attractiveness associated with compliments of different combination of form and topic. Each male face will be paired with two sentences of the same kind. After the fMRI participants will recall the judgment followed by a memory test during which they have to indicate whether the they have seen the face during scanning (old) or whether it is an unknown face (new).

Enrollment: 80 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 25 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Single in the past 3 months
• Healthy subjects with regular menstrual cycle

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant, menstruating, taking oral contraceptives
• metal implanted, with tatoo, or hair dyed within 6 months
• participated in another intranasal experiment within 6 months
• with a history of past or current psychiatric or neurological disorder

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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80 participants in 4 patient groups, including a placebo group

oxytocin fertility

Experimental group

Description:

intranasal oxytocin administration (24IU) in women's fertility phase (LH\>40 mIU/ml)

Treatment:

Drug: Oxytocin

placebos fertility

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

intranasal placebo administration (24IU) in women's fertility phase (LH\>40 mIU/ml)

Treatment:

Drug: Placebos

oxytocin luteal

Experimental group

Description:

intranasal oxytocin administration (24IU) in women's luteal phase (LH\<30 mIU/ml)

Treatment:

Drug: Oxytocin

placebos luteal

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

intranasal placebos administration (24IU) in women's luteal phase (LH\<30 mIU/ml)

Treatment:

Drug: Placebos