ArticleNature. Mental health2023
Oxytocin normalizes the implicit processing of fearful faces in psychopathy: a randomized crossover study using fMRI.
Article in Nature. Mental health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychopathy and medial frontal cortex: A systematic review reveals predominantly null relationships.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Intranasal oxytocin modulates brain activity during emotional processing in children with treatment resistant conduct problems.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Resting-state brain function and its modulation by intranasal oxytocin in antisocial personality disorder with and without psychopathy.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Cognitive-Affective Social Processing and Emotion Regulation (CASPER) model.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Oxytocin receptor epigenetics: from biomarker to potential therapeutic target.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Psychophysiology of facial emotion recognition in psychopathy dimensions and oxytocin's role: A scoping review.PloS one · 2025Article
- Impaired striatal glutamate/GABA regulation in violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
- How can (or could) biology inform more effective parenting interventions for childhood aggression?Aggression and violent behaviorArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Adults with antisocial personality disorder with (ASPD + P) and without (ASPD - P) psychopathy commit the majority of violent crimes. Empathic processing abnormalities are particularly prominent in psychopathy, but effective pharmacological interventions have yet to be identified. Oxytocin modulates neural responses to fearful expressions in healthy populations. The current study investigates its effects in violent antisocial men. In a placebo-controlled, randomized crossover design, 34 violent offenders (19 ASPD + P; 15 ASPD - P) and 24 healthy non-offenders received 40 IU intranasal oxytocin or placebo and then completed an fMRI morphed faces task examining the implicit processing of fearful facial expressions. Increasing intensity of fearful facial expressions failed to appropriately modulate activity in the bilateral mid-cingulate cortex in violent offenders with ASPD + P, compared with those with ASPD - P. Oxytocin abolished these group differences. This represents evidence of neurochemical modulation of the empathic processing of others' distress in psychopathy.
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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.