Oxytocin's Effects on Face Attentional Processing

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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To investigate whether intranasal oxytocin (24IU) treatment has a regulatory effect on attentional processing of emotional faces.

Detailed Description
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In a placebo-controlled double-blind between-subject design experiment, investigators plan to investigate the effect of oxytocin treatment on attentional processing of emotional faces. Subjects complete questionnaires in Chinese versions before treatment administration, including the Beck Depression Inventory, Autism Spectrum Quotient , Trait Anxiety Inventory, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Multidimentional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness. This experiment consists of two tasks including Emotional Face Cue-target Task and Visual Search Task. In the first task, subjects need to make a response to judge the position of target after a cue-target is presented. In the second task, subjects are asked to search the target U or inverted U placed on the nose of emotional/neutral faces and make an choices based on their oorientation. During these phases, subjects' response accuracy, response time and electrophysiological activity (ERP) are recorded.

Official Title
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The Modulatory Effect of Oxytocin on Attentional Processing of Emotional Faces

Conditions
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Healthy

Intervention / Treatment
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* Drug: oxytocin treatment
* Drug: placebo treatment


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorders. Exclusion Criteria: history of head injury medical or psychiatric illness

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 30 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Male

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: oxytocin group<br>male subjects with oxytocin treatment | Drug: oxytocin treatment<br>* intranasal administration of oxytocin (24IU)<br>|
| Placebo Comparator: placebo group<br>male subjects with placebo treatment | Drug: placebo treatment<br>* intranasal administration of placebo (24IU)<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Response time in reponse to different emotional face targets. | Response time in discriminating which side (left or right) the emotional face target appear. | 1 hour | 
| N2pc | N2pc is an enhanced negative event-related potential typically elicited at posterior electrodes (e.g., PO7 and PO8) contralateral to the target presented among distractors between 180 and 300 ms after the onset of stimuli. display. | 1 hour | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Response accuracy in response to different emotional face targets. | Response accuracy is caculated by the precentage of correct responses among the total responses in discriminating the position (left or right side) of different face conditions. | 1 hour | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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oxytocin, emotional faces, attention, N2pc