ArticlePsychopharmacology2021
Intranasal oxytocin enhances the perception of ambiguous averted gaze in women but not in men.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Inferences about women's traits influence the judgment of their eye contact.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Article
- Modulation of strategic status signaling: oxytocin changes men's fluctuations of status products preferences in their female partners' menstrual cycle.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- How Do Common Marmosets Maintain the Balance Between Response Execution and Action Inhibition?American journal of primatology · 2025Article
- Face mask reduces gaze-cueing effect.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Guilt-inducing interaction with others modulates subsequent attentional orienting via their gaze.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Fear-specific leftward bias in gaze direction judgment.Scientific reports · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPerceiving accurately that others are looking away from us (averted gaze) is as important, for social interactions, as perceiving that others are looking at us (direct gaze). However, previous studies have revealed that when the deflection angle of averted gaze is small, individuals tend to falsely perceive it as direct gaze. Oxytocin (OXT) has been shown to increase orientation to the eye region. Therefore, a critical question is whether and how OXT would facilitate the perception of ambiguous averted gaze.
objectivesThe present study aimed to measure the effects of OXT on the performance of males and females in distinguishing ambiguous averted gaze from direct gaze of different emotional faces.
methodsIn a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover experiment, 48 participants were presented successively two emotional faces with direct gaze (defined as 0, indicating the center of the eye) or averted gaze (defined as ±4, indicating the corner of the eye; +4 means that the iris moves 4 steps to the right; and -4 means that the iris moves 4 steps to the left) following intranasal oxytocin or placebo treatment and asked to make judgments on whether or not the two faces were the same in terms of identity. The interference effect of gaze direction was calculated by subtracting the mean accuracy and reaction time in the congruent gaze condition from those in the incongruent gaze condition. The logic of the measurement was if intranasal OXT would facilitate the detection of ambiguous averted gaze, we would observe a larger interference effect in the gaze incongruent condition compared with the gaze congruent condition, leading to longer RT or/and lower accuracy for identification judgment in the gaze incongruent condition.
resultsWhile there were no OXT effects in accuracy, we found a significant interaction between treatment, sex, and gaze congruency in reaction times. That is, following OXT as compared to placebo, women displayed stronger interference of gaze direction, whereas in men no significant difference was observed. Besides, this interaction did not vary across different emotional expressions.
conclusionsOur findings provide the first evidence for sex-dependent effects of OXT on the perception of ambiguous averted gaze. Given potential therapeutic applications of OXT to patients with developmental and psychiatric disorders, who are characterized as atypical in encoding gaze features, the findings suggest that rather different treatment outcomes could be anticipated in males and females.
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