Differential Effects of Oxytocin on Visual Perspective Taking for Men and Women

Abstract

Although oxytocin (OXT) has been shown to lead to reduced self-orientation, no study to date has directly and effectively weakened the egocentric tendencies in perspective taking tasks for both men and women. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, mixed design study we investigated the effects of OXT on men and women in visual perspective taking tasks. The results showed that OXT shortened the differences in response time between men and women in all experimental conditions. In addition, after OXT administration, the difference in reaction time between judging from one's own perspective and judging from others' perspectives decreased in female participants; however, this effect was not present in males. This may indicate that under OXT treatment, women have a higher tendency to overcome interference from their position and mindset when judging others' perspectives. However, OXT did not affect participants' accuracy, which is possibility because the used task was not suited to detect performance improvements caused by OXT. In summary, the above results may indicate that OXT could increase perspective-taking abilities through reducing self-bias and increasing the perception of others; furthermore, this trend mainly affected women rather than men.

Perspective-taking is spontaneous but not automatic

“…The classic result is that participants are slower to respond based on their own perspective when the avatar’s perspective differs from their own ( Cole et al, 2016 ; Conway et al, 2017 ; Furlanetto et al., 2016 ; Nielsen et al., 2015 ; Qureshi et al., 2010 ; Samson et al., 2010 ; Santiesteban et al, 2014 ; Surtees & Apperly, 2012 ). This result is sufficiently well-established that in recent years the DPT has begun to be used to establish the presence or absence of perspective-taking abilities in a range of different contexts, including research on psychopathy and gender differences ( Drayton et al, 2018 ; Yue et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Finally, we note that while the DPT is proving a fruitful method for exploring questions regarding visual perspective-taking, our results suggest that caution is required to interpret results from a range of tasks with widely varying stimuli and implementation. Given the application of this task to broader questions about theory of mind ( Drayton et al, 2018 ; Yue et al, 2017 ), it is essential to clarify the precise causes of altercentric interference before using this task to establish group differences in, or the presence or absence of, perspective-taking.…”

Modeling physiological responses induced by an emotion recognition task using latent class mixed models

“…More in detail, amygdala is modulated by both vasopressin (involved in anxiety and stress) and oxytocin [ 41 ] and it is able to influence the autonomic control [ 42 , 43 ]. Moreover, lots of evidences [ 44 – 46 ] supported a female superiority in the ability to read others mental states, linking this capability with the action of gender-related hormones. Taken together these evidences suggest that it is crucial to control for depression and anxiety when analyzing ANS arousal during an emotion recognition task as proposed by Quintana and colleagues in their previous work.…”

Perspective-taking is spontaneous but not automatic

“…The classic result is that participants are slower to respond based on their own perspective when the avatar's perspective differs from their own (Cole et al 2016;Conway et al 2017;Furlanetto et al 2016;Nielsen et al 2015;Qureshi et al 2010;Samson et al 2010;Santiesteban et al 2014;Surtees and Apperly 2012). This result is sufficiently well-established that in recent years the DPT has begun to be used to establish the presence or absence of perspectivetaking abilities in a range of different contexts, including research on psychopathy and gender differences (Drayton et al 2018;Yue et al 2017). (Samson et al 2010).…”