Adam J. Guastella, Ph.D. and his colleagues sought to evaluate the
effects of oxytocin on the encoding and recognition of faces in humans.
They recruited healthy male volunteers and in a double-blind,
randomized design, administered either oxytocin or a placebo. They then
presented a series of happy, angry and neutral human faces to the
volunteers on a computer screen. Participants returned the following
day where they were presented with a collection of faces and asked to
distinguish the new faces from ones that they saw on the prior day. The
results revealed that those who received oxytocin were more likely to
remember the happy faces they had seen previously, more so than the
angry and neutral faces.
Dr. Guastella notes that the "findings
are exciting because they show for the first time that oxytocin
facilitates the encoding of positive social information over social
information that is either neutral or negative." John H. Krystal, M.D.,
Editor of Biological Psychiatry and affiliated with both Yale
University School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System,
comments on the findings: "The findings from Guastella and colleagues
provide new evidence about a chemical system in the body that may help
us to connect socially to other people. One could imagine that our
ability to recall a particularly happy face at the end of a day full of
social contacts could reflect an action of oxytocin."
Social
isolation can be a feature of several psychiatric disorders. The
success of oxytocin in enhancing positive social memories raises the
possibility that oxytocin, or drugs that might act like oxytocin in the
brain, could be used to help people who are socially isolated and have
difficulty making social connections. Future research will be needed to
test this hypothesis.
See also: Babies Smiles and Mothers' Brains
Source: EurekAlert (Press Release)
References
Guastella, A.J., Mitchell, P.B. & Mathews F. (2008). Oxytocin Enhances the Encoding of Positive Social Memories in Humans. Biological Psychiatry, 64, 3.
