title: Effects of intranasal oxytocin prior to encoding and retrieval on recognition memory.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) has been shown to modulate a variety of human social behaviors. However, little is known about its impact on emotional memory processing. Previous research demonstrated both memory-enhancing and memory-impairing oxytocinergic effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated the influence of a single (prior to encoding) and a repeated (prior to encoding and retrieval) intranasal administration of OXT on recognition memory for stimuli taken from the International Affective Picture System. In addition, we assessed the interaction of emotion regulation during encoding and OXT-induced memory effects. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled design, 80 healthy young males performed an emotion regulation task followed by a surprising recognition memory task after 60 min.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show that repeated OXT administration significantly improved memory certainty for negative social stimuli. Regarding the influence of emotion regulation, the promnestic effect of OXT was more pronounced when participants had been instructed to increase their negative emotions during encoding.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicate that OXT facilitates the processing of negative social stimuli during memory encoding and retrieval, possibly by enhancing the perception of aversive aspects in social situations.
authors: Cluster of Excellence Languages of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195, Berlin, Germany. anne.weigand@fu-berlin.de
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Weigand
authors: Melanie
authors: M
authors: Feeser
authors: Matti
authors: M
authors: Gärtner
authors: Emily
authors: E
authors: Brandt
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Fan
authors: Philipp
authors: P
authors: Fuge
authors: Heinz
authors: H
authors: Böker
authors: Malek
authors: M
authors: Bajbouj
authors: Simone
authors: S
authors: Grimm
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects*; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010121:Oxytocin