Intranasal Oxytocin Facilitates Attention to Emotional Faces in Two Different Visual Search Tasks
Poster No:
2006
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Menghan Zhou1,2, Yuan Zhang1,2, Keith Kendrick1,2, Shuxia Yao1,2
Institutions:
1The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 2The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
First Author:
Menghan Zhou
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Co-Author(s):
Yuan Zhang
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Keith Kendrick
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Shuxia Yao
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China|The MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan, China|Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Introduction:
Oxytocin (OT) is a hypothalamic neuropeptide known to exert various modulatory effects on human behaviors (Kendrick et al., 2018; Quintana et al., 2021). The social salience hypothesis, one of the most influential theories, posits that OT enhances the salience of social cues possibly via modulating attentional processing (Shamay-Tsoory & Abu-Akel, 2016). However, it remains unclear whether OT's modulatory effects on social salience primarily act via modulating early or late stages of attentional processing. The present randomized, double-blind, placebo (PLC)-controlled, between-subject study combined with EEG to investigate OT's effects on social attention in two visual search tasks.
Methods:
Sixty healthy males were recruited. After completing questionnaires, they were randomly assigned to receive either OT (24 IU) or PLC. 45 minutes after treatment, they completed a cue-target visual search task (task 1; top-down) discriminating location (left vs. right) of an emotional target face and a modified visual search task (task 2; bottom-up) discriminating direction of a "U" shape (upward vs. downward) on a neutral face with an emotional face presented on the opposite side. Behavioral measures included choice accuracy and reaction time. 2 × 3 × 2 ANOVAs were conducted, with treatment (OT/PLC) as between-subject factor, face (happy/angry/fearful) and load (low/high) as within-subject factors in task 1 and 2 (OT/PLC) × 4 (happy/angry/fearful/neutral) × 2 (low/high) ANOVAs were performed in task 2. Neural data related to attention (N170, N2pc, P300 and theta power) were analyzed using treatment × face × load ANOVAs for each task.
Results:
Task 1
A repeated-measures ANOVA on reaction time revealed a significant main effect of treatment (F (1, 52) = 7.37, p = 0.009, ƞp2 = 0.12; Fig. 1a), with faster response in the OT compared to the PLC group. The interaction between treatment and load was significant (F (1, 52) = 4.68, p = 0.035, ƞp2 = 0.08; Fig. 1a). Post-hoc analyses indicated that OT accelerated response in both low and high load conditions, with a larger difference between OT and PLC under high load. At the neural level, OT decreased the N170 amplitude compared with the PLC (F (1, 52) = 4.75, p = 0.034, ƞp2 = 0.08; Fig. 1b, c). Time-frequency analysis also revealed that OT, relative to PLC, significantly increased the theta band power (F (1, 52) = 4.90, p = 0.031, ƞp2 = 0.09; Fig. 1d, e).
Task 2
We found a detrimental effect of OT on decreasing the choice accuracy independent of face emotions (F (1, 52) = 4.36, p = 0.042, ƞp2 = 0.08; Fig. 2a). There was a marginal main effect of treatment for N2pc (F (1, 52) = 4.02, p = 0.050, ƞp2 = 0.07; Fig. 2b-e), with a larger N2pc in the OT than the PLC group. There was also a marginally treatment effect on P300 (F (1, 52) = 3.64, p = 0.062, ƞp2 = 0.07; Fig. 2f, g), with a lower P300 amplitude following OT treatment. To examine whether these OT effects were modulated by time course of the task, we further split task 2 into two stages. While in the first half there were significant treatment effects for N2pc (F (1, 52) = 7.29, p = 0.009, ƞp2 = 0.12) and P300 (F (1, 52) = 4.24, p = 0.044, ƞp2 = 0.08) but not for choice accuracy, in the second half a significant treatment effect was only found for accuracy (F (1, 52) = 6.79, p = 0.012, ƞp2 = 0.12) but not for N2pc and P300.
A repeated-measures ANOVA on reaction time revealed a significant main effect of treatment (F (1, 52) = 7.37, p = 0.009, ƞp2 = 0.12; Fig. 1a), with faster response in the OT compared to the PLC group. The interaction between treatment and load was significant (F (1, 52) = 4.68, p = 0.035, ƞp2 = 0.08; Fig. 1a). Post-hoc analyses indicated that OT accelerated response in both low and high load conditions, with a larger difference between OT and PLC under high load. At the neural level, OT decreased the N170 amplitude compared with the PLC (F (1, 52) = 4.75, p = 0.034, ƞp2 = 0.08; Fig. 1b, c). Time-frequency analysis also revealed that OT, relative to PLC, significantly increased the theta band power (F (1, 52) = 4.90, p = 0.031, ƞp2 = 0.09; Fig. 1d, e).
Task 2
We found a detrimental effect of OT on decreasing the choice accuracy independent of face emotions (F (1, 52) = 4.36, p = 0.042, ƞp2 = 0.08; Fig. 2a). There was a marginal main effect of treatment for N2pc (F (1, 52) = 4.02, p = 0.050, ƞp2 = 0.07; Fig. 2b-e), with a larger N2pc in the OT than the PLC group. There was also a marginally treatment effect on P300 (F (1, 52) = 3.64, p = 0.062, ƞp2 = 0.07; Fig. 2f, g), with a lower P300 amplitude following OT treatment. To examine whether these OT effects were modulated by time course of the task, we further split task 2 into two stages. While in the first half there were significant treatment effects for N2pc (F (1, 52) = 7.29, p = 0.009, ƞp2 = 0.12) and P300 (F (1, 52) = 4.24, p = 0.044, ƞp2 = 0.08) but not for choice accuracy, in the second half a significant treatment effect was only found for accuracy (F (1, 52) = 6.79, p = 0.012, ƞp2 = 0.12) but not for N2pc and P300.
Conclusions:
This study provided evidence for OT facilitating attentional processing of social cues in the format of emotional faces. More specifically, while in task 1 OT enhanced top-down early attentional processing and resource allocation of emotional faces, in task 2 OT increased the distracting effect of emotional faces in a bottom-up way which was further modulated by time course of the task. Our findings may provide proof of concept for OT's therapeutic potential in mental disorders with attention dysfunction such as autism.
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
EEG 2
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Attention: Visual 1
Keywords:
Electroencephaolography (EEG)
Other - Oxytocin; Social stimuli; Attentional processing; Visual search task;
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Quintana, D. S., Lischke, A., Grace, S., Scheele, D., Ma, Y., & Becker, B. (2021). Advances in the field of intranasal oxytocin research: Lessons learned and future directions for clinical research. Molecular Psychiatry, 26(1), 80–91. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00864-7
Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., & Abu-Akel, A. (2016). The Social Salience Hypothesis of Oxytocin. Biological Psychiatry, 79(3), 194–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.07.020