The Effects Of Oxytocin On Negative Emotion Recognition In Individuals With Different Attachment Anxiety And Its Mechanism

Accurate interpretation of other’s emotions,appropriate expression of one’s own emotions,and reciprocity within interactions are key aspects of social cognition.In social interaction,emotion expression is believed to be dependent on accurate interpretation of social signals,and much of our social information can be gleaned from other people’s facial expressions.Facial expression is a powerful non-verbal expression of emotion that conveys valence to others and contains vital information in a complex social world.People increased attention to the eye region may improve emotion recognition,because it conveys the most relevant cues for emotion recognition,we are able to detect other people’s current emotional states,and this provides clues for how we respond to subsequent social interactions.Oxytocin is a central neuropeptide that regulates complex social cognition and behavior and plays a key role in social function.While previous studies have focused on rodents,recently there has been increasing interest in applying these findings into humans,and the effects of intranasal oxytocin on social-emotional function have been widely studied.Previous studies on the effect of oxytocin on the recognition of negative emotions have not been consistent,some researchers believe that intranasal oxytocin improves recognition of anger and fearful faces,while others believe that there is no significant difference on the effect of oxytocin,regardless of emotion valence.The neural mechanisms of oxytocin affecting the recognition of negative emotions are mainly concentrated in the limbic region,the medial prefrontal cortex and the temporoparietal region.According to the social salience hypothesis,oxytocin can alter perceived salience and the processing of social cues,but this depends on environmental factors and individual differences.Previous studies have shown that the effects of oxytocin on social cognition and behavior are moderated by attachment style,oxytocin promotes prosocial behavior in individuals who are low in affinition(high attachment avoidance individuals),however,it can exacerbate the interpersonal insecurity in those preoccupied with closeness(individuals with high attachment anxiety).According to attachment theory,early different parenting experiences will shape individuals’ different attachment styles and thus form different emotional regulation strategies.Attachment anxiety is associated with a focus on others to the exclusion of the self,anxious individuals tend to adopt the hyperactive strategy,their attachment system is usually hyperactivated in order to get the attention and care of unpredictable caregivers.Attachment avoidance is associated with a focus on the self to the exclusion of others,avoidant individuals tend to adopt a deactivation strategy,which deactivate the attachment system by devaluing emotional attachment and intimacy,and striving for independence and self-reliance.Facial expression is one of the most important types of emotional information in social interaction,and it is also an activator of attachment system.Therefore,this study suggests that the incongruent effect of oxytocin on negative emotion recognition may moderated by attachment style differences,and attempts to explore the effect of the oxytocin on negative emotion recognition and its neural mechanism in individuals with different attachment style.Based on the social salience hypothesis and attachment theory,this study conducted two experiments to investigate the effect of oxytocin on negative emotion recognition and its neural mechanism in individuals with different attachment anxiety.In experiment 1,we used eye tracking to test whether attachment style moderates the effect of oxytocin on negative emotion recognition,which is crucial for social cognition.We employed a placebo-controlled,double-blind,within-participants design.The participants were 73 healthy individuals(41 men)who received a single dose of intranasal oxytocin(24 IU)on one occasion and a placebo dose on another occasion.Visual attention to the eye region was assessed on both occasions,through the completion of an emotion recognition task.Our results showed that oxytocin increased participants’ eye gaze towards facial expressions,among participants who received oxytocin,as opposed to a placebo,only individuals with high attachment anxiety displayed more eye gaze and less mouth gaze towards facial expression,regardless of emotion valence.Oxytocin had no significant effect on emotion recognition among high and low attachment avoidance individuals.Based on the results of Experiment 1,Experiment 2 used f MRI technique,which also used emotion recognition task,and recruited 25 individuals with high and low attachment anxiety respectively.In a randomized,double-blind,placebo-controlled,crossover experiment design,we further explored the neural mechanism of recognition of negative emotions in individuals with high and low attachment anxiety after administration oxytocin.Our results showed that oxytocin decreased the left medial frontal gyrus,right inferior frontal gyrus,right superior frontal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus during the recognition of negative emotional faces in individuals with high attachment anxiety,compared to individuals with low attachment anxiety.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)Oxytocin increases gaze to the eye region,thus improving facial recognition,regardless of emotion valence,this relationship was moderated by attachment anxiety.Among participants who received oxytocin,as opposed to a placebo,only individuals with high attachment anxiety displayed more eye gaze and less mouth gaze towards facial expression.Due to oxytocin may increase the salience of the threat signal,individuals with high attachment anxiety will process negative emotion face in a negatively biased schematic fashion.on the one hand,promote their emotion recognition ability,on the other hand,because they are too immersed in the eyes area of negative emotion faces,they shows a characteristics that are difficult to disengage from it.(2)Oxytocin decreased the left medial frontal gyrus,right inferior frontal gyrus,right superior frontal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus during the recognition of negative emotional faces in individuals with high attachment anxiety,compared to individuals with low attachment anxiety.These brain regions play important roles in emotional regulation and cognitive control,suggesting that oxytocin may impair in individuals with high attachment anxiety perceive social stimuli and emotion regulation ability.(3)The effects of exogenous oxytocin on social cognition and social behavior was modulate by attachment style differences,which plays an important role in the development of oxytocin system.In this study,attachment style was used as a moderator of the effect of oxytocin on negative emotion recognition.Combined with eye movement tracking technology and f MRI technology,we further explored the behavioral and neural mechanisms of oxytocin on the negative emotion recognition in individuals with different attachment anxiety.Most of the previous studies on oxytocin used clinical population as the research objects,based on the social information processing model of attachment,combined with social salience hypotheses,this study confirms that the effect of oxytocin on negative emotion recognition was moderated by attachment anxiety,thus enriches and expands the research fields of oxytocin and emotion recognition.From both behavioral and neural basis perspective confirmed that the effect of oxytocin on emotion perception are not necessarily universally beneficial,this study confirms that individuals who administration oxytocin may strengthen the negative interaction in the absence of positive social experience.Therefore,administration oxytocin intervention treatment need to carefully consider environmental factors and individual differences in future studies.