title: Oxytocin modulates the racial bias in neural responses to others' suffering.
abstract: The intergroup relationship between a perceiver and a target person influences empathic neural responses to others' suffering, which are increased for racial in-group members compared to out-group members. The current study investigated whether oxytocin (OT), a neuropeptide that has been linked to empathic concern and in-group favoritism, contributes to the racial bias in empathic neural responses. Event-related brain potentials were recorded in Chinese male adults during race judgments on Asian and Caucasian faces expressing pain or showing a neutral expression after intranasal self-administration of OT or placebo. A fronto-central positive activity at 128-188 ms (P2) was of larger amplitude in response to the pain expressions compared with the neutral expressions of racial in-group members but not of racial out-group members. OT treatment increased this racial in-group bias in neural responses and resulted in its correlation with a positive implicit attitude toward racial in-group members. Our findings suggest that OT interacts with the intergroup relationship to modulate empathic neural responses to others' suffering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Shihui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy / Q000187:drug effects; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D063505:Racism / Q000523:psychology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin