title: Opposing effects of oxytocin on moral judgment in males and females.
abstract: Current perspectives on the evolutionary roots of human morality suggest it arose to incentivize social cooperation by promoting feelings of disgust toward selfish behavior, although the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. To investigate whether the ancient mammalian neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) influences self-referential processing in the domains of emotion evaluation and moral decision making, we conducted a pharmaco-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a behavioral experiment involving 157 healthy women and men who were treated with either OXT (24 IU) or placebo (PLC) intranasally. Our results show that OXT facilitated cortical midline responses during self-processing of disgust and selectively promoted self-interest moral judgments in men. In contrast, in women OXT increased the reaction time difference between accepted and rejected moral dilemmas and led them to suppress their self-interest and respond more altruistically for the benefit of others. Taken together, these findings suggest an OXT-related sexual dimorphism in human moral behavior which evolved adaptively to optimize both protection and nurturing of offspring by promoting selfish behavior in men and altruistic behavior in women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Department of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scheele
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Striepens
authors.forename: Keith M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kendrick
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schwering
authors.forename: Janka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Noelle
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wille
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Schläpfer
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hurlemann
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010551:Personality; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: dilemma; disgust; functional magnetic resonance imaging; neuropeptide; self-processing
references.citation: Science. 2001 Sep 14;293(5537):2105-8
references.pmid: 11557895
references.citation: Front Hum Neurosci. 2013 Aug 15;7:485
references.pmid: 23966936
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2014 Jan;39:237-248
references.pmid: 24157401
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2013 Sep;38(9):1883-94
references.pmid: 23856187
references.citation: Front Hum Neurosci. 2012 Jun 28;6:193
references.pmid: 22754520
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2012 Apr 18;32(16):5553-61
references.pmid: 22514317
references.citation: Neuron. 2010 Mar 25;65(6):768-79
references.pmid: 20346754
references.citation: Neuron. 2003 Oct 30;40(3):655-64
references.pmid: 14642287
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jan 17;109(3):959-64
references.pmid: 22215593
references.citation: Evolution. 2010 Sep;64(9):2587-600
references.pmid: 20394663
references.citation: Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2014 Mar 3;49:47-52
references.pmid: 24252717
references.citation: Brain. 2002 Aug;125(Pt 8):1696-708
references.pmid: 12135962
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2010 Jan;35(1):83-93
references.pmid: 19632787
references.citation: Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2013 Jun;13(2):330-45
references.pmid: 23297009
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2012 Mar;37(3):438-43
references.pmid: 21802859
references.citation: Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013 Feb;14(2):143-52
references.pmid: 23329161
references.citation: Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012 Apr;220(4):741-9
references.pmid: 22012170
references.citation: Horm Behav. 2005 Feb;47(2):164-9
references.pmid: 15664019
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Dec 10;110(50):20308-13
references.pmid: 24277856
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2013 Dec;38(12):2996-3002
references.pmid: 24064220
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Jan 25;108(4):1262-6
references.pmid: 21220339
references.citation: Nat Rev Neurosci. 2005 Oct;6(10):799-809
references.pmid: 16276356
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2014 Jan;39:74-87
references.pmid: 24275006
references.citation: Neuron. 2010 Aug 12;67(3):359-62
references.pmid: 20696374
references.citation: Brain Struct Funct. 2010 Jun;214(5-6):579-91
references.pmid: 20428887
references.citation: Science. 2010 Jun 11;328(5984):1408-11
references.pmid: 20538951
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2012 Nov 14;32(46):16074-9
references.pmid: 23152592
references.citation: Sci Rep. 2013 Dec 06;3:3440
references.pmid: 24310737
references.citation: PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e58113
references.pmid: 23469148
references.citation: Hum Brain Mapp. 2013 May;34(5):1220-9
references.pmid: 22162203
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2010 Apr 7;30(14):4999-5007
references.pmid: 20371820
references.citation: Nature. 2005 Jun 2;435(7042):673-6
references.pmid: 15931222
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2012 Aug 1;62(1):493-9
references.pmid: 22587900
references.citation: Neuron. 2004 Oct 14;44(2):389-400
references.pmid: 15473975
references.citation: Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Nov 1;66(9):864-70
references.pmid: 19640508
references.citation: Front Behav Neurosci. 2014 May 27;8:191
references.pmid: 24904342
references.citation: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2011 Oct;6(5):556-63
references.pmid: 21115541
references.citation: Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2014 Nov;17(11):1785-92
references.pmid: 24916520
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2011 Aug 1;57(3):1221-33
references.pmid: 21609772
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Oct 30;109(44):18144-9
references.pmid: 23074247
references.citation: Science. 2009 Feb 27;323(5918):1222-6
references.pmid: 19251631
references.citation: Horm Behav. 2010 Mar;57(3):368-74
references.pmid: 20080100
references.citation: Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Jun;9(6):857-63
references.pmid: 23596189
references.citation: Nervenarzt. 2013 Nov;84(11):1321-8
references.pmid: 24190030
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2009 Jul;34(6):917-23
references.pmid: 19246160
references.citation: Nature. 2007 Apr 19;446(7138):908-11
references.pmid: 17377536
references.citation: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2012 Mar;1251:62-76
references.pmid: 22256964
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2011 Mar 1;55(1):8-23
references.pmid: 21111053
references.citation: Brain Cogn. 2012 Apr;78(3):268-73
references.pmid: 22296985
references.citation: Front Neuroendocrinol. 2011 Oct;32(4):426-50
references.pmid: 21802441
references.citation: Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 Sep;35(9):4741-50
references.pmid: 24659430
references.citation: Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2013 Aug;38(8):1362-9
references.pmid: 23290991
references.citation: Psychol Sci. 2011 Mar;22(3):295-9
references.pmid: 21307274
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2010 Oct 13;30(41):13906-15
references.pmid: 20943931
references.citation: PLoS One. 2007 Nov 07;2(11):e1128
references.pmid: 17987115