TY - JOUR
T1 - In the eye of the beholder? Oxytocin effects on eye movements in schizophrenia
AU - Porffy, Lilla A
AU - Bell, Victoria
AU - Coutrot, Antoine
AU - Wigton, Rebekah
AU - D'Oliveira, Teresa
AU - Mareschal, Isabelle
AU - Shergill, Sukhwinder S
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Dr. Dan W. Joyce and Dr. M. Berk Mirza for their help, comments, and suggestions. LAP is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MR/N013700/1) and King's College London member of the MRC Doctoral Training Partnership in Biomedical Sciences. SSS is supported by a European Research Council Consolidator Award (Grant Number 311686) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. This study represents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The funders had no role in the design, analysis, write-up or decision to submit for publication.
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Dr. Dan W. Joyce and Dr. M. Berk Mirza for their help, comments, and suggestions. LAP is supported by the UK Medical Research Council ( MR/N013700/1 ) and King's College London member of the MRC Doctoral Training Partnership in Biomedical Sciences. SSS is supported by a European Research Council Consolidator Award (Grant Number 311686 ) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/2
Y1 - 2020/2
N2 - BACKGROUND: Individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty in extracting salient information from faces. Eye-tracking studies have reported that these individuals demonstrate reduced exploratory viewing behaviour (i.e. reduced number of fixations and shorter scan paths) compared to healthy controls. Oxytocin has previously been demonstrated to exert pro-social effects and modulate eye gaze during face exploration. In this study, we tested whether oxytocin has an effect on visual attention in patients with schizophrenia.METHODS: Nineteen male participants with schizophrenia received intranasal oxytocin 40UI or placebo in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover fashion during two visits separated by seven days. They engaged in a free-viewing eye-tracking task, exploring images of Caucasian men displaying angry, happy, and neutral emotional expressions; and control images of animate and inanimate stimuli. Eye-tracking parameters included: total number of fixations, mean duration of fixations, dispersion, and saccade amplitudes.RESULTS: We found a main effect of treatment, whereby oxytocin increased the total number of fixations, dispersion, and saccade amplitudes, while decreasing the duration of fixations compared to placebo. This effect, however, was non-specific to facial stimuli. When restricting the analysis to facial images only, we found the same effect. In addition, oxytocin modulated fixation rates in the eye and nasion regions.DISCUSSION: This is the first study to explore the effects of oxytocin on eye gaze in schizophrenia. Oxytocin had enhanced exploratory viewing behaviour in response to both facial and inanimate control stimuli. We suggest that the acute administration of intranasal oxytocin may have the potential to enhance visual attention in schizophrenia.
AB - BACKGROUND: Individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty in extracting salient information from faces. Eye-tracking studies have reported that these individuals demonstrate reduced exploratory viewing behaviour (i.e. reduced number of fixations and shorter scan paths) compared to healthy controls. Oxytocin has previously been demonstrated to exert pro-social effects and modulate eye gaze during face exploration. In this study, we tested whether oxytocin has an effect on visual attention in patients with schizophrenia.METHODS: Nineteen male participants with schizophrenia received intranasal oxytocin 40UI or placebo in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover fashion during two visits separated by seven days. They engaged in a free-viewing eye-tracking task, exploring images of Caucasian men displaying angry, happy, and neutral emotional expressions; and control images of animate and inanimate stimuli. Eye-tracking parameters included: total number of fixations, mean duration of fixations, dispersion, and saccade amplitudes.RESULTS: We found a main effect of treatment, whereby oxytocin increased the total number of fixations, dispersion, and saccade amplitudes, while decreasing the duration of fixations compared to placebo. This effect, however, was non-specific to facial stimuli. When restricting the analysis to facial images only, we found the same effect. In addition, oxytocin modulated fixation rates in the eye and nasion regions.DISCUSSION: This is the first study to explore the effects of oxytocin on eye gaze in schizophrenia. Oxytocin had enhanced exploratory viewing behaviour in response to both facial and inanimate control stimuli. We suggest that the acute administration of intranasal oxytocin may have the potential to enhance visual attention in schizophrenia.
KW - Eye-tracking
KW - Oxytocin
KW - Schizophrenia
KW - Social cognition
KW - Visual attention
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076249104&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.schres.2019.11.044
DO - 10.1016/j.schres.2019.11.044
M3 - Article
C2 - 31836261
SN - 0920-9964
VL - 216
SP - 279
EP - 287
JO - Schizophrenia Research
JF - Schizophrenia Research
ER -
