Oral Oxytocin's Effects on Attention Control

Oral Oxytocin's Effects on Attention Control: An Eye-tracking Study

The main aim of the study is to investigate whether orally administered oxytocin (24IU) could modulate attention control using a social-emotional saccade/antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Oral Oxytocin; Drug: Oral Placebo

Detailed Description

Numerous studies have reported the effect of intranasally administered oxytocin on attentional processing including stimulus-driven bottom-up processing and top-down goal-directed inhibitory control. However, it is unclear whether the functional effects are mediated by the peptide directly entering the brain or indirectly via raising peripheral concentrations. One possible method of producing a similar pattern of increased peripheral oxytocin concentrations but without the possibility of direct entry into the brain would be to administer the peptide lingually. In the present double-blind, between-subject, placebo-controlled study, 80 healthy male subjects will be recruited and receive either oxytocin (24IU) or placebo control administered orally (lingual). 45 minutes after treatment subjects are required to complete a social-emotional saccade/antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm. This 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 orally administered oxytocin.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Sichuan
    • Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 611731
      • Recruiting
      • University of Electronic Science and Technology of China(UESTC)
      • Contact: Zhao Weihua, PhD; Phone Number: +86 2861 830 811; Email: zarazhao.uestc@outlook.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years to 26 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Male, healthy participants
• Non smokers

Exclusion Criteria:

• Previous or current medical, psychiatric, neurological disorder
• Regular medication
• Use of any psychoactive substances in the 24 hours before experiment
• Contra-indications for oxytocin
• Contra-indications for eye-tracking data acquisition

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Oral Oxytocin; Oxytocin orally (24 IU)	Drug: Oral Oxytocin; Administration of oxytocin orally (24 IU)
Placebo Comparator: Oral Placebo; Placebo orally (24 IU, identical ingredients, except the active agent)	Drug: Oral Placebo; Administration of placebo orally (24 IU)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Effect of oral oxytocin administration on saccade/antisaccade latencies towards social (facial) versus non-social (shape) stimuli	Comparison between social-specific saccade/antisaccade latencies (in milliseconds) between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions	45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment
Effect of oral oxytocin administration on error rates of saccade/antisaccade for social (facial) versus non-social (shape) stimuli	Comparison between social-specific error rates of saccade/antisaccade between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions.	45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Emotion-specific effects of oral oxytocin administration on saccade/antisaccade latencies towards the separate facial emotions	Comparison between emotion-specific saccade/antisaccade latencies (in milliseconds) between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions	45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment
Emotion-specific effects of oral oxytocin administration on saccade/antisaccade error rates for the separate facial emotions	Comparison between emotion-specific saccade/antisaccade error rates between the oxytocin and placebo treatment conditions	45 minutes - 100 minutes after treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Keith Kendrick, PhD, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 28, 2020
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): December 31, 2020
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 31, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 27, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 27, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): July 30, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 30, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 27, 2020
• Last Verified: July 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Physiological Effects of Drugs; Reproductive Control Agents; Oxytocics; Oxytocin
• Other Study ID Numbers: UESTC-neuSCAN-69

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No