Sex-specific influences of vasopressin on human social communication

Abstract

Arginine vasopressin (AVP) and related peptides affect social behaviors in numerous species, but AVP influences on human social functions have not yet been established. Here, we describe how intranasal AVP administration differentially affects social communication in men and women, and we propose a mechanism through which it may exert those influences. In men, AVP stimulates agonistic facial motor patterns in response to the faces of unfamiliar men and decreases perceptions of the friendliness of those faces. In contrast, in women, AVP stimulates affiliative facial motor patterns in response to the faces of unfamiliar women and increases perceptions of the friendliness of those faces. AVP also affected autonomic responsiveness to threatening faces and increased anxiety, which may underlie both communication patterns by promoting different social strategies in stressful contexts in men and women.

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Mean and SEM of stimulus-induced changes in corrugator EMG activity in men (A; saline, n = 18; AVP, n = 20) and women (B; saline, n = 18; AVP, n = 20) 15 min after drug administration. AVP significantly increased responses to neutral faces in men, whereas it significantly decreased responses to happy and angry faces in women (∗, P < 0.05).

Fig. 2.

Mean and SEM of corrugator EMG responses in control men on the two stimulus sets. Responses to neutral faces were significantly larger on set 2 than set 1 (∗, P < 0.05).

Fig. 3.

Mean and SEM of zygomaticus major EMG responses to faces in women on the second stimulus set, 50 min after drug administration (saline, n = 19; AVP, n = 17). AVP significantly increased zygomaticus responses to neutral faces (∗, P < 0.05).

Fig. 4.

Mean and SEM of approachability ratings of faces on set 1 in men (A; saline, n = 18; AVP, n = 19) and women (B; saline, n = 16: AVP, n = 16). AVP significantly reduced ratings of happy faces in men and significantly increased ratings of neutral faces in women (∗, P < 0.05).

Fig. 5.

Mean and SEM of SC responses to faces on set 1 (A; saline, n = 37; AVP, n = 37) and of minimum HR responses to faces on set 2 (B; saline, n = 30; AVP, n = 33) in men and women combined. AVP significantly increased SC responses to angry faces and significantly reduced HR decelerations to angry faces (∗, P < 0.05).