Abstract
Visual attention directed towards the eye-region of a face emerges rapidly, even before conscious awareness, and regulates social interactions in terms of approach versus avoidance. Current perspectives on the neuroendocrine substrates of this behavioral regulation highlight a role of the peptide hormone oxytocin (OXT), but it remains unclear whether the facilitating effects of OXT vary as a function of facial familiarity. Here, a total of 73 healthy participants was enrolled in an eye-tracking experiment specifically designed to test whether intranasal OXT (24 IU) augments gaze duration toward the eye-region across four different face categories: the participants’ own face, the face of their romantic partner, the face of a familiar person (close friend) or an unfamiliar person (a stranger). We found that OXT treatment induced a tendency to spend more time looking into the eyes of familiar persons (partner and close friend) as compared to placebo. This effect was not evident in the self and unfamiliar conditions. Independent of treatment, volunteers scoring high on autistic-like traits (AQ-high) spent less time looking at the eyes of all faces except their partner. Collectively, our results show that the OXT system is involved in facilitating an attentional bias towards the eye region of familiar faces, which convey safety and support, especially in anxious contexts. In contrast, autistic-like traits were associated with reduced attention to the eye region of a face regardless of familiarity and OXT-treatment.
Highlights
Visual attention towards a face at the initial stages of interpersonal communication emerges outside conscious awareness and deliberate control and regulates social interactions in terms of approach and avoidance
Many neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are characterized by impairments in visual attention to and facial assessment of a social counterpart, which may lead to difficulties in establishing social relationships [2, 3]
Eye-Tracking Reveals a Role of Oxytocin features of the face, and especially the eye region of a face [4], which may reflect diminished social motivation [5]
Summary
Visual attention towards a face at the initial stages of interpersonal communication emerges outside conscious awareness and deliberate control and regulates social interactions in terms of approach and avoidance. With previous neuroimaging studies showing that OXT consistently targets reward- [(30–32), but see [33]] and fear-related neurocircuits [34,35,36,37], the peptide possibly facilitates attention to social stimuli by modulating the rewarding experience from interpersonal interactions [18, 38], and this experience may be pronounced during encounters with familiar others In this context, it is important to note, that the effects of OXT are highly susceptible to individual personality traits and situational variables [9, 39]. After treatment with 24-IU OXT or placebo (PLC), the participants viewed personalized, dynamic video clips, which involved four different categories of faces: the participants own face, the face of their romantic partner, the face of a familiar person (close friend) or an unfamiliar person (a stranger)
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