The influence of oxytocin administration on responses to infant faces and potential moderation by OXTR genotype

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Oxytocin.

The present study assessed the effects of intranasally administered oxytocin and OXTR genotype on human adults' preferences for infant faces.

Why It Was Studied

However, no previous study has investigated healthy adults' responses to infant faces following oxytocin administration.

Who Took Part

The study group was 57 volunteers.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, young adults and adults, both men and women.

A double-blind, between-groups design was used, with 57 genotyped volunteers randomly assigned to receive intranasally administered oxytocin or placebo.

Fifty minutes following the administration of oxytocin or placebo, participants viewed infants' and adults' faces showing neutral expressions and assessed how appealing they found each face.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The volunteers were allocated by chance, so the Oxytocin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

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

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Oxytocin could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Choice Behavior, Face, Genotype, Oxytocin, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Receptors, Oxytocin and Reward.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 57 volunteers.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2012 (Psychopharmacology), a journal based in Germany.

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