Trial reportHuman brain mapping2016
Oxytocin blurs the self-other distinction during trait judgments and reduces medial prefrontal cortex responses.
Trial report in Human brain mapping, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Music's context-dependent influence on oxytocin, social bonding, and emotion regulation: a systematic review.Frontiers in cognition · 2025Pooled it
- Tri-Phasic Model ofOxytocin (TRIO): A systematic conceptual review of oxytocin-related ERP research.Biological psychology · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of four-week intranasal oxytocin administration on large-scale brain networks in older adults.Neuropharmacology · 2024Trial
- Intranasal oxytocin decreases self-oriented learning.Psychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- P300-mediated modulations in self-other processing under psychedelic psilocybin are related to connectedness and changed meaning: A window into the self-other overlap.Human brain mapping · 2020Trial
- Automatic Imitation in Comorbid PTSD & Alcohol Use Disorder and Controls: an RCT of Intranasal Oxytocin.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Trial
- Intranasal oxytocin modulates higher order social cognition in body dysmorphic disorder.Depression and anxiety · 2019Trial
- Oxytocin Modulates Attention Switching Between Interoceptive Signals and External Social Cues.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- Oxytocin effects on self-referential processing: behavioral and neuroimaging evidence.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2017Trial
- Intranasal Oxytocin Selectively Modulates Large-Scale Brain Networks in Humans.Brain connectivity · 2017Trial
- Working hard for oneself or others: Effects of oxytocin on reward motivation in social anxiety disorder.Biological psychology · 2017Trial
- Oxytocin-induced modulation of explicit and implicit visual perspective taking.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Neuropeptidergic systems in psychiatric disorders.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- Brain Networks, Neurotransmitters and Psychedelics: Towards a Neurochemistry of Self-Awareness.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2024Review
- Depressive symptoms and social context modulate oxytocin's effect on negative memory recall.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2021Article
- Article
- The Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Neural and Behavioral Responses to Social Touch in the Form of Massage.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
- Oxytocin Facilitates Self-Serving Rather Than Altruistic Tendencies in Competitive Social Interactions Via Orbitofrontal Cortex.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2019Article
- A Protective Mechanism against Illusory Perceptions Is Amygdala-Dependent.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019Article
- Increasing the Difference in Decision Making for Oneself and for Others by Stimulating the Right Temporoparietal Junction.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) may act either to increase or blur the distinction between self and other and thereby promote either more selfish or altruistic behaviors. To attempt to distinguish between these two possibilities we performed a double-blind, between-subject, placebo-controlled design study to investigate the effect of intranasal OXT on self and other (mother, classmate, or stranger) trait judgments in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results showed that OXT reduced response times for making both self and other judgments, but also reduced the accuracy of their subsequent recall, thereby abolishing the normal self-bias observed in this task. OXT also abolished the positive correlation between response and self-esteem scale scores seen in the PLC group, suggesting that its effects were strongest in individuals with higher levels of self-esteem. A whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis revealed that OXT also reduced responses during both self and other trait judgments in the dorsal (dmPFC) and ventral (vmPFC) medial prefrontal cortex. A subsequent region of interest analysis revealed that behavioral performance and self-esteem scale scores were associated with dmPFC activation and its functional connectivity with the anterior cingulate and between the vmPFC and posterior cingulate. Thus overall, while OXT may improve speed of decision making in self -vs. other trait judgments it also blunts the normal bias towards remembering self-attributes and reduces mPFC responses and connectivity with other cortical midline regions involved in self-processing. This is consistent with the view that OXT can reduce self-centered behavior. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2512-2527, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.