The Effects of Vasopressin on Attention Control

What Was Tested

This registered not phased trial tested Vasopressin.

It had two arms (groups): Vasopressin (experimental) and Placebo (placebo comparator).

Placebo intranasally.

The registry classes the interventions as drug.

More on the Plan

A number of previous studies have reported vasopressin's effect on human social behavior and social cognition, although it remains unclear whether vasopressin could modulate attention allocation including stimulus-driven bottom-up control and goal-directed top-down control.

The paradigm uses social (happy, sad, angry, fear, and neutral faces) as well as non-social (oval shapes) stimuli to explore social- and emotion-specific effects of vasopressin.

Who Took Part

Enrollment: 89 actual participants took part.

It was open to men only aged from 18 years up to 30 years.

Healthy volunteers could join, not only people with the condition.

The full record lists 2 inclusion and 5 exclusion criteria; among the exclusions: previous or current medical, psychiatric, neurological disorder; regular medication; use of any psychoactive substances in the 24 hours before experiment.

How the Study Was Run

It was run as a randomized, parallel-group and triple-blind study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vasopressin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The Vasopressin group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

As a double-blind Vasopressin study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

Those kept unaware of assignments: participant, investigator and outcomes assessor.

It started in 2020-07-28 with completion listed for 2020-11-30.

It ran at 1 site in China.

Its stated primary purpose is basic science.

What Was Measured

Primary outcome: Effect of vasopressin administration on saccade/antisaccade latencies towards social (facial) versus non-social (shape) stimuli (time frame: 45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment). Effect of vasopressin administration on error rates of saccade/antisaccade for social (facial) versus non-social (shape) stimuli (time frame: 45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment).

It also tracked 2 secondary outcomes, for example Emotion-specific effects of vasopressin administration on saccade/antisaccade latencies towards the separate facial emotions and Emotion-specific effects of vasopressin administration on saccade/antisaccade error rates for the separate facial emotions.

What This Means in Plain Language

Put simply, this is a not phased, randomized trial of Vasopressin in 89 people.

The trial is marked completed; no results are posted to the registry yet, so nothing here describes outcomes.

More context: the Vasopressin compound page, all human trials.