title: Oxytocin improves mentalizing - pronounced effects for individuals with attenuated ability to empathize.
abstract: The ability to predict the behavior of others based on their mental states is crucial for social functioning. Previous studies have provided evidence for the role of Oxytocin (OXT) in enhancing the ability to mentalize. It has also been demonstrated that the effect of OXT seems to strongly depend on socio-cognitive skills with more pronounced effects in individuals with lower socio-cognitive skills. Although recent studies indicate that mentalizing is related to empathy, no study has yet examined whether the effects of OXT on mentalizing depend on the ability to empathize. 71 male participants participated in a double-blind, between-subjects, placebo-controlled experiment. The Reading the Mind in the Eye Test (RMET) was used to investigate mentalizing abilities. We analyzed the effect of OXT on easy and difficult items of the RMET depending on differential empathy scores of the participants as assessed with the Empathy Quotient (EQ). Our results showed that OXT improves mentalizing for difficult but not for easy items. We generally observed increased mentalizing accuracy in participants with higher empathy scores. Importantly, however, whereas the performance in participants with higher empathy scores was comparable in both OXT and placebo condition, OXT specifically enhanced mentalizing accuracy in participants with lower empathy scores. Our findings suggest that OXT enhances mentalizing abilities. However, we also demonstrate that not all participants benefited from OXT application. It seems that the effects of OXT strongly depend on baseline social-cognitive skills such as empathy.
authors: Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050 Berlin, Germany; Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: melanie.feeser@fu-berlin.de.
authors: Melanie
authors: M
authors: Feeser
authors: Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050 Berlin, Germany; Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Fan
authors: Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050 Berlin, Germany; Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Weigand
authors: Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne, Richard-Strauss-Str. 2, 50931 Cologne, Germany.
authors: Adam
authors: A
authors: Hahn
authors: Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050 Berlin, Germany; Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors: Matti
authors: M
authors: Gärtner
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Zürich, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors: Heinz
authors: H
authors: Böker
authors: Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050 Berlin, Germany; Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Zürich, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors: Simone
authors: S
authors: Grimm
authors: Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050 Berlin, Germany; Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors: Malek
authors: M
authors: Bajbouj
mesh_terms: D000281:Administration, Intranasal; D000328:Adult; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004645:Empathy / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010120:Oxytocics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011897:Random Allocation; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000187:drug effects*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010120:Oxytocics; D010121:Oxytocin
keywords: Empathy; Mentalizing; Neuropeptide; Oxytocin