Intranasal Oxytocin Administration and the Neural Correlates of Social and Non-Social Visual Perception

Yale University

Status and phase

Completed

Early Phase 1

Conditions

Social Perception

Treatments

Drug: Oxytocin

Other: Placebo

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02238379

1309012677

Details and patient eligibility

About

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of oxytocin on social behavior and brain activity using EEG and the event-related potential (ERP) technique. The value of EEG is its high temporal specificity, enabling precision in the timing of social behavior to be addressed. In order to elicit social responses in the human brain, a variety of social and emotional visual stimuli will be presented during EEG recording, namely infant and adult faces and houses. Brain responses after intranasal oxytocin will then be compared with placebo, to examine the effect of intranasal oxytocin on central nervous system activity. We hypothesize that intranasal oxytocin will enhance the neural response to social stimuli (infant and adult faces) but not to non-social stimuli (houses).

Enrollment

26 patients

Sex

Female

Ages

18 to 64 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Adults ages 18-64
Good medical health
Ability to understand and speak English

Exclusion criteria

Pregnancy
Medical Illnesses: Moderate or severe acute or chronic medical illnesses (e.g. cardiac disease, diabetes, epilepsy, influenza).
Cardiovascular risk factors: History of hypertension with baseline blood pressure above 140 mm Hg (systolic) over 90 mm Hg (diastolic). Also any history of syncope and/or baseline blood pressure below 100 mm Hg (systolic).
CNS disease: Known history of brain abnormalities (e.g., neoplasms, subarachnoid cysts), cerebrovascular disease, infectious disease (e.g., abscess), other central nervous system disease, or history of head trauma which resulted in a persistent neurologic deficit or loss of consciousness > 3 minutes.
Medication status: Individuals on stable doses of a neuroleptic and/or an antidepressant medication for at least the past 6 weeks will be allowed to participate in this study. The use of other psychotropic medications will not be allowed. Females taking contraceptive hormones will not be able to participate in the study.
A history of seizures or current use of anticonvulsants; history of head injury with loss of consciousness