Oxytocin and Emotion Recognition

What are the three emotions that older individuals find hardest to recognise in other people?

Anger, sadness, fear

For males given oxytocin intra-nasally, what two emotions did oxytocin decrease the intensity of change required to recognise them?

Angry and fearful expressions

Was there positive evidence to suggest that oxytocin improves emotional recognition via eye scanning?

No, evidence showed that there was no difference between controls and oxytocin group when they were assessed on emotion recogntion- they both looked into the eyes the same amount, and it showed that simply looking into eyes was not making individuals really recognise emotions

What effect did oxytocin have on participants ability to perform in the dynamic facial expression task?

Oxytoxin decreased the intensity required for particpants to be able to see a change in emotion- they were more sensitive to small changes on the face

When autistic individuals were given either a placebo or oxytocin, what were the effects on empathetic accuracy comparatively?

Placebo group= As scores on Autsim Spectrum Quotient increased, empathetic accuracy decreased. Oxytocin group= As scores on Autism Spectrum Quotient increased, empathetic accuracy was mainted- it did not decrease as would be expected.

Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and a hormone in the blood. What are some of the peripheral effects of oxytocin associated with? Give 2

Regulating bone density, appetite, water levels, lactation during breast feeding, labour in females

One is one natural simplistic way that recognition is thought to be improved? And which gender tends to do this more?

Scanning of the eyes- females tend to look more into the eyes while males look more at the mouth

Generally, which are better at recognizing emotion? -Older or younger -Male or female

Younger Female

"The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person= complex emotion recogniton". What is this a definition of?

Empathy

Di Simplicio et al (2009) found oxytocin did not affect the recognition of individual emotions but increased the misclassification of negative emotions as positive emotions- true or false?

False- found that oxytocin reduced the misclassifcation of positive emotions as negative emotions

On the Emotion recognition task a particular emotion is most readily recognised- what is it and what effect is it thought to be recognised at?

Happiness is easily recognised and is usually recognised at a 'ceiling level' = most readily recognised.

For males given oxytocin intra-nasally, what emotion was recognised quickly, slowly and moderately (there are 2) on the dynamic faces task?

Happiness= quickly Sadness= slowly Fear and anger= moderately

Marsh et al. (2010) found that oxytocin increased the recognition of what emotion....? but not anger, sadness, surprise, fear and ......

Increased recogntion of Happiness Not of disgust

What was the main difference between Marsh et al. (2010) and Fischer-Shofty et al. (2010) in what emotions oxytocin increased emotional recognition of?

Marsh found that oxytocin increased emotional recognition of happiness, but Fischer didnt- found it increased recogniton of fear

How much time must participants wait for until they complete study tasks after administration of Oxytocin?

Approximately 45 mins

Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and a hormone in the blood. What are some of the central effects of oxytocin associated with? (area most interested in). Give 2

Attachment, bonding, trust.

Why is intranasal oxytocin a good way to administor for experimental use?

Because it gives the central effects of oxytoocin but not the peripheral effects (it doesnt cross the brain-blood barrier).

Why do females naturally have more oxytocin than males?

Because it interacts naturally with the female hormone oestrogen

Oxytoxin has been found to enhance emotional recogntion, specifically for happiness and fear. What was the difference of emotional recognition in association with exposure time to these emotions?

Both happiness recognition and fear recognition improved- however happiness recognition improved when exposure time was short -less than 300 ms in comparison to exposure time for fear= more than 300ms

Oxytocin improves the accuracy of emotion recognition of .......... such as

Complex emotions (more difficult items) such as boredem, arrogance, sarcasim, embarrassment

What is thought may happen by given oxytocin intra-nasally in research?

Creation of a feed-forward loop (increase production of oxytocin)

One of the two main theories as to how oxytocin works within our body is the Social Approach/Withdrawal Motivation Theory. What does this theory suggest oxytocin does?

Oxytocin increases motivation to approach stimuli and reduce motiavtion to withdraw from threat

One of the two main theories as to how oxytocin works within our body is the -Social Salience Theory. What does this theory suggest oxytocin does?

Oxytocin increases the salience (prominence/appearance of something) of socially relevant stimuli e.g. emotions

What was found for participants in the emotional recognition task when they were given oxytocin? Partcipants= Young female, young male, older female, older male

Oxytocin only improved emotion recognition for older men only. Interesting to note that young female, young male and older female placebo's scored the same or slightly better on emotion recogntion tasks in comparison to their oxytocin counterparts

What does the Neural decline theory suggest in relation to emotional recognition?

Suggests that emotional recogntion declines due to changes in brain structures that are associated with anger, sadness and fear and therefore alters transmission between these structures via neurotransmitters (of which oxytocin is one)

Autistic individuals are thought to be less socially proficient- what does this mean?

That they are less socially expertised/ less capable of responding in an expertise way in a social situation

Another finding associated with eye tracking was that when individuals took oxytocin, older males did look more into the eyes, nose and mouth regions and oxytocin has also been found to improve older males emotion recognitions- but looking to important areas on the face was not associated correlated with emotion recognition- true or false?

True- therefore, this is not the mechanism for improved emotional recognition (get someone to explain this a bit more to you Tiff :)

Oxytocin has an effect on a range of social behaviours- what are the two main social behaviours it seems to have an effect on?

Trust and Emotional recognition