Oxytocin improves "mind-reading" in humans
Oxytocin improves "mind-reading" in humans
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DOI：
10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.015
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发表时间：
2007-03-15
影响因子：
10.6
通讯作者：
Herpertz, Sabine C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Domes, Gregor;Heinrichs, Markus;Herpertz, Sabine C.
通过推断他人的内心状态来调整自己行为的能力是所有人类社会互动的基石。为了理解或预测他人的行为，人类必须从面部表情等外部线索推断出内部状态，这种能力被称为“读心术”（Siegal and Varley 2002; Stone et al 1998）。特别是，自闭症患者在解释面部表情等社交线索方面有明显的困难，导致严重的社交障碍（Hill和Frith 2003）。神经垂体肽催产素在分娩和哺乳中的生理功能是众所周知的。此外，催产素受体分布在与社会行为相关的不同脑区（Landgraf and Neumann 2004），包括非人类哺乳动物的繁殖和育儿行为、隶属关系和依恋、社会记忆以及对社会压力的反应（Carter 1998; Ferguson et al 2000; Young and Wang 2004）。神经肽经鼻给药后可穿过血脑屏障（Born et al . 2002），几项研究报告了对人类行为的直接影响（Heinrichs et al . 2003, 2004; Kosfeld et al . 2005）。特别是，催产素似乎减少了对社会压力的反应，增加了社会互动中的信任（Heinrichs et al 2003; Kosfeld et al 2005）。因为读心术是人类社会互动的必要基础，而催产素已被证明可以调节社会接近行为，我们假设催产素也可能促进人类的读心术。具体来说，催产素被期望在测试从微妙的面部线索推断他人情感精神状态的能力的任务中提高表现。
The ability to infer the internal state of another person to adapt one's own behavior is a cornerstone of all human social interactions. Humans have to infer internal states from external cues such as facial expressions in order to make sense of or predict another person's behavior, an ability that is referred to as "mind-reading" (Siegal and Varley 2002; Stone et al 1998). In particular, individuals with autism have distinct difficulties in interpreting social cues such as facial expressions, leading to severe social impairment (Hill and Frith 2003).The neurohypophyseal peptide oxytocin is well known for its physiological functions in labor and lactation. In addition, oxytocin receptors are distributed in various brain areas (Landgraf and Neumann 2004) that are associated with social behavior, including reproductive and parenting behaviors, affiliation and attachment, social memory, and reactivity to social stress in nonhuman mammals (Carter 1998; Ferguson et al 2000; Young and Wang 2004). Neuropeptides have been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier after intranasal administration (Born et al 2002), with several studies reporting direct effects on human behavior (Heinrichs et al 2003, 2004; Kosfeld et al 2005). In particular, oxytocin appears to reduce responses to social stress and to increase trust in social interaction (Heinrichs et al 2003; Kosfeld et al 2005). Because mind-reading is an essential basis of human social interaction and oxytocin has been shown to modulate social approach behavior, we hypothesized that oxytocin might also promote mind-reading in humans. Specifically, oxytocin was expected to improve performance in a task testing the ability to infer the affective mental state of others from subtle facial cues.