Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany.
Graduate School for Systemic Neurosciences, Department of Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Munich, Germany.
Elife. 2021 Apr 6;10:e61844. doi: 10.7554/eLife.61844.
Oxytocin is well-known for its impact on social cognition. This specificity for the social domain, however, has been challenged by findings suggesting a domain-general allostatic function for oxytocin by promoting future-oriented and flexible behavior. In this pre-registered study, we tested the hypothesized domain-general function of oxytocin by assessing the impact of intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) on core aspects of human social (inequity aversion) and non-social decision making (delay of gratification and cognitive flexibility) in 49 healthy volunteers (within-subject design). In intertemporal choice, patience was higher under oxytocin than under placebo, although this difference was evident only when restricting the analysis to the first experimental session (between-group comparison) due to carry-over effects. Further, oxytocin increased cognitive flexibility in reversal learning as well as generosity under conditions of advantageous but not disadvantageous inequity. Our findings show that oxytocin affects both social and non-social decision making, supporting theoretical accounts of domain-general functions of oxytocin.
催产素以其对社会认知的影响而闻名。然而，一些研究结果表明，催产素具有促进面向未来和灵活行为的一般性适应功能，这对其在社会领域的特异性提出了挑战。在这项预先注册的研究中，我们通过评估鼻腔内给予 24IU 催产素对 49 名健康志愿者（被试内设计）人类社会（厌恶不公平）和非社会决策（延迟满足和认知灵活性）核心方面的影响，来检验催产素的假设的一般性适应功能。在跨期选择中，催产素组比安慰剂组更有耐心，尽管由于前测效应的影响，这种差异仅在限制分析仅限于第一个实验阶段（组间比较）时才明显。此外，在有利但不利不公平条件下，催产素增加了反转学习和慷慨行为的认知灵活性。我们的研究结果表明，催产素会影响社会和非社会决策，这支持了关于催产素的一般性适应功能的理论解释。
