Oxytocin weakens self-other distinction in males during empathic responses to sadness: an event-related potentials study

Abstract

By making use of event-related potential (ERP) technology, a randomized, double-blind, between-subject design study was performed in order to investigate whether OXT can weaken men’s self-other distinction during empathic responses to sad expressions. In the two experimental tasks, 39 male subjects were asked to either evaluate the emotional state shown in a facial stimulus (other-task) or to evaluate their own emotional responses (self-task). The results revealed that OXT reduced the differences in P2 (150–200 ms) amplitudes between sad and neutral expressions in the self-task but enhanced P2 to sad expressions in the other-task, indicating OXT’s role in integrating the self with others instead of separating them. In addition, OXT also reduced the LPC (400–600 ms) amplitudes between sad-neutral expressions in the self-task, implying that OXT’s weakening effects on the self-other distinction could occur at both the early and late cognitive control stages of the empathic response.