Abstract
BackgroundOxytocin administration may increase attention to emotional information. We hypothesized that this augmented emotional processing might in turn lead to interference on concurrent cognitive tasks. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether oxytocin administration would lead to heightened emotional interference during a working memory paradigm. Additionally, moderating effects of childhood maltreatment were explored.MethodsSeventy-eight healthy males received 24 IU of intranasal oxytocin or placebo in a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind between-subjects study. A working memory task was performed during which neutral, positive, and negative distractors were presented.ResultsThe main outcome observed was that oxytocin did not enhance interference by emotional information during the working memory task. There was a non-significant trend for oxytocin to slow down performance irrespective of distractor valence, while accuracy was unaffected. Exploratory analyses showed that childhood maltreatment was related to lower overall accuracy, but in the placebo condition only. However, the maltreated group sample size was very small precluding any conclusions on its moderating effect.ConclusionsDespite oxytocin’s previously proposed role in enhanced emotional processing, no proof was found that this would lead to reduced performance on a concurrent cognitive task. The routes by which oxytocin exerts its effects on cognitive and social-emotional processes remain to be fully elucidated.
Highlights
Oxytocin research has received much attention in recent years due to its positive role in social behaviors including pair bonding, trust, social memory, and anxiety (Heinrichs et al 2009; Macdonald and Macdonald 2010; Meyer-Lindenberg et al 2011)
The repeated measures (RM) analyses on Reaction times (RTs) in the full sample indicated interference by both negative and positive distractors
No evidence was found for enhanced distraction by emotional information after oxytocin administration, as the interaction between condition and emotion was not significant (F(2, 146) = 0.92, p = .40, ηp2 = 0.012), see Fig. 1
Summary
Oxytocin research has received much attention in recent years due to its positive role in social behaviors including pair bonding, trust, social memory, and anxiety (Heinrichs et al 2009; Macdonald and Macdonald 2010; Meyer-Lindenberg et al 2011). These effects have raised the possibility of a host of therapeutic applications (Guastella et al 2009a; Koch et al 2014; McQuaid et al 2014). A working memory task was performed during which neutral, positive, and negative distractors were presented
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