Oxytocin and Interpersonal Motor Resonance

Summary

Among different social cues from the environment, the eyes constitute a very salient source for initiating social interaction or communication. Interestingly, previous work from our (Prinsen et al., 2016) and other labs demonstrated that direct eye contact between two individuals can readily evoke an increased propensity to 'mirror' other peoples' actions. Particularly, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the investigators showed that mirror-motor mapping at the level of the primary motor cortex (M1), also known as "interpersonal motor resonance" (IMR), is significantly increased upon the observation of actions accompanied by direct eye contact, compared to the observation of actions accompanied by averted eye gaze.

With the present study, the investigators aim to investigate the role of eye contact on IMR further, and in particular, explore whether administration of the 'prosocial' neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) can influence eye-contact induced IMR. In general, OT is known to play an important role in promoting prosocial behavior and the perception of socially-relevant stimuli, such as eye gaze. To date however, the link between OT and IMR is less clear.

Conditions

• Social Behavior

Interventions

DRUG

Oxytocin

A single dose (24IU) of nasal spray (3 puffs of 4IU per nostril) will be administered before the assessment of the neurophysiological measures.

OTHER

Placebo

A single dose (24IU) of nasal spray (3 puffs of 4IU per nostril) will be administered before the assessment of the neurophysiological measures.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Branco Weiss Fellowship

  collaborator OTHER

• Research Foundation Flanders

  collaborator OTHER

• KU Leuven

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kaat Alaerts, PhD · KU Leuven

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

35 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-01-31

Primary Completion

2016-08-31

Completion

2016-12-31

Countries

• Belgium

Study Locations