Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2019 Dec;4(12):1042-1048. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.01.014. Epub 2019 Feb 13.
Previously, oxytocin, a neuropeptide implicated in human social cognition and behavior, was shown to improve people's ability to dynamically track another's emotional state ("empathic accuracy") specifically for less socially proficient individuals-i.e., healthy adults who score higher on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ); conversely, oxytocin had no effect on empathic accuracy for more socially proficient individuals, who performed well following oxytocin and placebo. Here, we aimed to replicate this finding and investigate the effects of oxytocin on empathic accuracy in women. To date, women have been seriously underrepresented in human oxytocin research, and it is not known whether the effects observed in male-only samples apply to women.
In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial, we administered 24 IU intranasal oxytocin (and, on a separate occasion, a matching placebo) to 31 men and 40 women and then measured empathic accuracy. AQ was assessed at baseline (prior to drug administration).
Replicating a 2010 study by Bartz et al., oxytocin selectively improved empathic accuracy for men who scored higher on the AQ, whereas oxytocin did not benefit their lower AQ counterparts. Conversely, we found no effect of oxytocin on empathic accuracy for women (regardless of their AQ score).
In addition to speaking to reliability, this research is important given interest in using oxytocin to augment social functioning in some psychiatric disorders marked by social cognitive impairments. More generally, this research adds to our understanding of the biological systems that support human sociality and provides further evidence for the role of oxytocin therein.
先前的研究表明，神经肽催产素与人类的社会认知和行为有关，它可以提高人们动态跟踪他人情绪状态的能力（“同理心准确性”），特别是对于社交能力较低的个体，即自闭症谱系商数（AQ）得分较高的健康成年人；相反，催产素对社交能力较高的个体的同理心准确性没有影响，他们在接受催产素和安慰剂后表现良好。在这里，我们旨在复制这一发现，并研究催产素对女性同理心准确性的影响。迄今为止，女性在人类催产素研究中严重代表性不足，并且不知道在仅男性样本中观察到的效果是否适用于女性。
在这项随机、双盲、安慰剂对照、交叉试验中，我们给 31 名男性和 40 名女性施用 24IU 鼻内催产素（并在另一个场合施用匹配的安慰剂），然后测量同理心准确性。AQ 在基线（药物给药前）进行评估。
复制了 Bartz 等人 2010 年的研究，催产素选择性地提高了 AQ 得分较高的男性的同理心准确性，而对 AQ 得分较低的男性则没有益处。相反，我们发现催产素对女性的同理心准确性没有影响（无论她们的 AQ 得分如何）。
除了可靠性外，这项研究还很重要，因为人们对使用催产素来增强某些以社会认知障碍为特征的精神障碍中的社会功能感兴趣。更一般地说，这项研究增加了我们对支持人类社会性的生物学系统的理解，并为催产素在其中的作用提供了进一步的证据。
