Differential Effects of Vasopressin and Oxytocin on Attention Control

Previous studies have demonstrated intranasal vasopressin and oxytocin's divergent effects on social behavior and emotion processing such as empathy and negative emotion processing, however, it remains unclear whether vasopressin and oxytocin treatment would have differential effects on attention processing to social stimuli. Based on the previous registered studies (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04493554 and NCT03486925) from our group using a validated emotional anti-saccade task with social stimuli (emotional faces) and non-social stimuli (oval shape) have separately explored intranasal vasopressin and oxytocin's modulatory effects on attention processing, the present study aims to conduct a secondary analysis of the previously acquired data to directly compare vasopressin and oxytocin's effects on attention control to social emotional stimuli. To this end data from subjects who underwent intranasal oxytocin administration (n = 33; NCT03486925) will be compared with data from subjects who underwent intranasal vasopressin or placebo administration (n = 39, or 45 respectively; NCT04493554). To further control for non-treatment related factors the intranasal placebo groups from the previous studies (ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04493554 and NCT03486925) will be compared with respect to primary and secondary outcome measures of the trial, in particular general and emotion-specific effects on attentional control.

Inclusion criteria

• Male, healthy participants
• Non smokers

Exclusion criteria

• Previous or current medical, psychiatric, neurological disorder
• Regular medication
• Use of any psychoactive substances in the 24 hours before experiment