Oxytocin improves mentatizing - Pronounced effects for individuals with attenuated ability to empathize
Oxytocin improves mentatizing - Pronounced effects for individuals with attenuated ability to empathize
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DOI：
10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.12.015
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发表时间：
2015-03-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Bajbouj, Malek
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Feeser, Melanie;Fan, Yan;Bajbouj, Malek
根据他人的心理状态预测其行为的能力对于社会功能至关重要。先前的研究已经为催产素（OXT）在增强心智化能力中的作用提供了证据。研究还表明，OXT的效果似乎强烈依赖于社会认知技能，在社会认知技能较低的个体中效果更明显。虽然最近的研究表明，心理化是与同情，还没有研究是否OXT的影响心理化依赖于同情的能力。71伴侣参与者参加了一个双盲，受试者之间，安慰剂对照实验。采用眼内阅读心测验（RMET）考察心理化能力。我们分析了OXT对RMET中容易和困难项目的影响，这取决于被试的共情得分，并使用共情商数（EQ）进行评估。我们普遍观察到，共情得分较高的参与者的心理化准确性增加。然而，重要的是，尽管具有较高共情分数的参与者在OXT和安慰剂条件下的表现相当，但OXT特别增强了具有较低共情分数的参与者的心智化准确性。然而，我们也证明，并不是所有的参与者受益于OXT应用程序。OXT的效果似乎很大程度上取决于基本的社会认知技能，如同理心。(C)2015爱思唯尔有限公司版权所有。
The ability to predict the behavior of others based on their mental states is crucial for social functioning. Previous studies have provided evidence for the role of Oxytocin (OXT) in enhancing the ability to mentalize. It has also been demonstrated that the effect of OXT seems to strongly depend on socio-cognitive skills with more pronounced effects in individuals with lower socio-cognitive skills. Although recent studies indicate that mentalizing is related to empathy, no study has yet examined whether the effects of OXT on mentalizing depend on the ability to empathize.71 mate participants participated in a double-blind, between-subjects, placebo-controlled experiment. The Reading the Mind in the Eye Test (RMET) was used to investigate mentalizing abilities. We analyzed the effect of OXT on easy and difficult items of the RMET depending on differential empathy scores of the participants as assessed with the Empathy Quotient (EQ).Our results showed that OXT improves mentalizing for difficult but not for easy items. We generally observed increased mentalizing accuracy in participants with higher empathy scores. Importantly, however, whereas the performance in participants with higher empathy scores was comparable in both OXT and placebo condition, OXT specifically enhanced mentalizing accuracy in participants with lower empathy scores.Our findings suggest that OXT enhances mentalizing abilities. However, we also demonstrate that not all participants benefited from OXT application. It seems that the effects of OXT strongly depend on baseline social-cognitive skills such as empathy. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.