Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) influences how humans process information about others. Whether OT affects the processing of information about oneself remains unknown. Using a double-blind, placebo-controlled within-subject design, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from adults during trait judgments about oneself and a celebrity and during judgments on word valence, after intranasal OT or placebo administration. We found that OT vs. placebo treatment reduced the differential amplitudes of a fronto-central positivity at 220-280. ms (P2) during self- vs. valence-judgments. OT vs. placebo treatment tended to reduce the differential amplitude of a late positive potential at 520-1000. ms (LPP) during self-judgments but to increase the differential LPP amplitude during other-judgments. OT effects on the differential P2 and LPP amplitudes to self- vs. celebrity-judgments were positively correlated with a measure of interdependence of self-construals. Thus OT modulates the neural correlates of self-referential processing and this effect varies as a function of interdependence.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 380-387 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Biological Psychology |
Volume | 94 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2013 |
Keywords
- ERP
- Oxytocin
- P2
- Self-construal
- Self-referential processing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology