Abstract
Faces and voices are prominent cues for person-identity recognition. Face recognition behavior and associated brain responses can be enhanced by intranasal administration of oxytocin. It is unknown whether oxytocin can also augment voice-identity recognition mechanisms. To find it out is particularly relevant for individuals who have difficulties recognizing voice identity such as individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We conducted a combined behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study to investigate voice-identity recognition following intranasal administration of oxytocin or placebo in a group of adults diagnosed with ASD (full-scale intelligence quotient > 85) and pairwise-matched typically developing (TD) controls. A single dose of 24 IU oxytocin was administered in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and cross-over design. In the control group, but not in the ASD group, administration of oxytocin compared to placebo increased responses to recognition of voice identity in contrast to speech in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (pSTS/G) — a region implicated in the perceptual analysis of voice-identity information. In the ASD group, the right pSTS/G responses were positively correlated with voice-identity recognition accuracy in the oxytocin condition, but not in the placebo condition. Oxytocin did not improve voice-identity recognition performance at the group level. The ASD compared to the control group had lower right pSTS/G responses to voice-identity recognition. Since ASD is known to have atypical pSTS/G, the results indicate that the potential of intranasal oxytocin to enhance mechanisms for voice-identity recognition might be variable and dependent on the functional integrity of this brain region.
Highlights
Recognition of others has an essential role for successful social interactions
Right posterior superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (pSTS/G) responses to speaker task compared to speech task in the control and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) group
Extracting parameter estimates from the peak voxels of the significant interaction for each group and substance separately indicated that this interaction was driven by higher right pSTS/G responses to “speaker > speech” in the control group compared to the ASD group across both substance conditions (Supplementary Fig. S4). In congruence with this interpretation, there was a main effect of Task in the control group, but not in the ASD group
Summary
Recognition of others has an essential role for successful social interactions. Correct recognition of identity determines communication behavior such as content and style of a conversation and allows for appropriate actions in social contexts. Impairments of person-identity recognition can contribute to difficulties in communication and avoidance of social situations[1,2]. Intranasal oxytocin enhanced the ability to recognize the emotional state and the identity of others from the face in TD individuals[6,7,8,9] and individuals with a selective face-identity recognition deficit[10]. It remains unknown whether intranasal oxytocin can augment recognition of person identity from the voice
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