title: Effects of oxytocin on behavioral and ERP measures of recognition memory for own-race and other-race faces in women and men.
abstract: Oxytocin has been shown to affect human social information processing including recognition memory for faces. Here we investigated the neural processes underlying the effect of oxytocin on memorizing own-race and other-race faces in men and women. In a placebo-controlled, double-blind, between-subject study, participants received either oxytocin or placebo before studying own-race and other-race faces. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) during both the study and recognition phase to investigate neural correlates of oxytocin's effect on memory encoding, memory retrieval, and perception. Oxytocin increased the accuracy of familiarity judgments in the recognition test. Neural correlates for this effect were found in ERPs related to memory encoding and retrieval but not perception. In contrast to its facilitating effects on familiarity, oxytocin impaired recollection judgments, but in men only. Oxytocin did not differentially affect own-race and other-race faces. This study shows that oxytocin influences memory, but not perceptual processes, in a face recognition task and is the first to reveal sex differences in the effect of oxytocin on face memory. Contrary to recent findings in oxytocin and moral decision making, oxytocin did not preferentially improve memory for own-race faces.
authors: University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, UCB 345, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. Electronic address: grit.herzmann@gmail.com.
authors: Grit
authors: G
authors: Herzmann
authors: Christopher W
authors: CW
authors: Bird
authors: Megan
authors: M
authors: Freeman
authors: Tim
authors: T
authors: Curran
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000187:drug effects*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000187:drug effects*; D010919:Placebos; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000187:drug effects*; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010919:Placebos; D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: ERP; Other-race faces; Own-race faces; Oxytocin; Recognition memory; Remember/know; Sex differences
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