Priority communicationOxytocin Improves “Mind-Reading” in Humans
Section snippets
Methods and Materials
In this study, we used a double-blind placebo-controlled within-subject design to investigate the effects of a single dose of intranasal oxytocin on the performance of inferring mental states from the eye region, measured with the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test” (RMET; Baron-Cohen et al 2001). It should be noted that the RMET tests a specific facet of mind-reading, that is, inference of the internal state from subtle affective facial expressions rather than mind-reading in general. Because
Results
Compared with placebo, oxytocin improved performance on the RMET in 20 of the 30 participants. This resulted in a significant mean increase of approximately 3% correct responses (mean ± SD: placebo: 69.4 ± 8.1; oxytocin: 72.4 ± 8.6; t = −2.18, df = 29, p = .019, one-sided; see Figure 1). We hypothesized that oxytocin would particularly improve the performance on those pictures that represent highly subtle social cues by showing eye regions that are difficult to interpret in terms of the
Discussion
In sum, this study shows that a single dose of intranasally administered oxytocin is sufficient to cause a substantial increase in the ability in affective mind-reading and therefore in interpreting subtle social cues from the eye region of other individuals. The ability of mind-reading is involved in almost all kinds of human social interactions. Evidence for the key role of oxytocin in prosocial behavior and affiliation has come primarily from studies in animals (Bartz and Hollander in press,
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