Effects of Oxytocin on Facial Expression and Identity Working Memory Are Found in Females but Not Males

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Caizhen Yue¹  Xiting Huang²  Tong Yue²  Guangyuan Liu⁴ 

[1] Department of Education, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, China;Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China;Post-doctoral Station of Mathematics, Southwest University, Chongqing, China;School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing, China;

关键词: sex differences;    oxytocin;    working memory;    facial expressions;    identity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnins.2018.00205

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Although oxytocin (OXT) has been shown to increase the ability of face perception and processing, no study has explored whether it could improve the performance of working memory for emotional expression information in males and females. Thus, we performed a double-blind, mixed-design, placebo-controlled study to investigate the effects of OXT on temporary maintenance/manipulation of facial information through a facial expression (EMO) vs. identity (ID) working memory task, both for males (N = 45) and females (N = 46). Our results showed that in female participants, OXT increased the accuracy of the recognition of faces displaying angry and happy emotions, in the EMO tasks, and also reduced the response time to negative emotional faces, in the ID task. However, the above effects were not present in male subjects. These results indicate that OXT may increase the efficiency of working memory in face processing and this trend is reflected in females rather than in males. This study provides novel evidence for the sexually dimorphic effects of OXT on social cognition.

【 授权许可】

Unknown