Modulatory effect of oxytocin on neural activity in response to fearful emotion in schizophrenia

Abstract

Introduction: Impaired facial emotion recognition is a core deficit in schizophrenia. Oxytocin has been shown to improve social perception in patients with schizophrenia

however, the effect of oxytocin on the neural activity underlying facial emotion recognition has not been investigated. This study was aimed to assess the effect of a single dose of intranasal oxytocin on brain activity in patients with schizophrenia using a facial emotion recognition paradigm.

Methods: Sixteen male patients with schizophrenia and 16 age-matched healthy male control subjects participated in a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial at Seoul National University Hospital. Delivery of a single dose of 40 IU intranasal oxytocin and the placebo were separated by 1 week. Drug conditions were compared by performing a region of interest (ROI) analysis of the bilateral amygdala and a whole-whole brain analysis of responses to the emotion recognition test.

Results: Oxytocin attenuated bilateral amygdala activity in response to fearful and neutral faces in the patients, whereas inhalation of oxytocin significantly increased amygdala activity in response to happy faces in the control group, which was related to attachment style.

Conclusions: The present results indicate that intranasal oxytocin attenuated amygdala activity evoked by fearful and neutral faces in patients with schizophrenia, suggesting that inhalation of oxytocin may reduce social anxiety and the salience of perceived negative and ambiguous emotions. This study provides new evidence to support a therapeutic role for intranasal oxytocin in schizophrenia.