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dc.contributor.authorGrainger, Sarah A
dc.contributor.authorHenry, Julie D
dc.contributor.authorSteinvik, Henriette R
dc.contributor.authorVanman, Eric J
dc.contributor.authorRendell, Peter G
dc.contributor.authorLabuschagne, Izelle
dc.date.accessioned2020-02-24T06:30:31Z
dc.date.available2020-02-24T06:30:31Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.identifier.issn0018-506X
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.yhbeh.2018.01.009
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/391842
dc.description.abstractOxytocin is a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social processing and there are several studies suggesting that intranasally administered oxytocin may enhance social cognitive abilities and visual attention in healthy and clinical groups. However, there are very few studies to date that have investigated the potential benefits of intranasal oxytocin (iOT) on older adults' social cognitive abilities. This is a surprising omission, because relative to their younger counterparts, older adults also exhibit a range of social cognitive difficulties and also show differences in the way they visually attend to social information. Therefore, we tested the effect of iOT (24 IU) versus a placebo spray on 59 older and 61 younger adults' social cognitive abilities and visual attention using a double-blind placebo-controlled within-groups design. While iOT provided no overall age-related benefit on social cognitive abilities, the key finding to emerge was that iOT improved ToM ability in both age-groups when the task had minimal contextual information, but not when the task had enriched contextual information. Interestingly, iOT had gender specific effects during a ToM task with minimal context. For males in both age-groups, iOT reduced gazing to the social aspects of the scenes (i.e., faces & bodies), and for females, iOT eliminated age differences in gaze patterns that were observed in the placebo condition. These effects on eye-gaze were not observed in a very similar ToM task that included more enriched contextual information. Overall, these findings highlight the interactive nature of iOT with task related factors (e.g., context), and are discussed in relation to the social salience hypothesis of oxytocin.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom25
dc.relation.ispartofpageto34
dc.relation.ispartofjournalHormones and Behavior
dc.relation.ispartofvolume99
dc.subject.fieldofresearchBiological sciences
dc.subject.fieldofresearchBiomedical and clinical sciences
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode31
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode32
dc.subject.keywordsScience & Technology
dc.subject.keywordsLife Sciences & Biomedicine
dc.subject.keywordsBehavioral Sciences
dc.subject.keywordsEndocrinology & Metabolism
dc.subject.keywordsIntranasal oxytocin
dc.titleIntranasal oxytocin does not reduce age-related difficulties in social cognition
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dcterms.bibliographicCitationGrainger, SA; Henry, JD; Steinvik, HR; Vanman, EJ; Rendell, PG; Labuschagne, I, Intranasal oxytocin does not reduce age-related difficulties in social cognition, Hormones and Behavior, 2018, 99, pp. 25-34
dcterms.dateAccepted2018-01-31
dc.date.updated2020-02-24T06:29:11Z
gro.hasfulltextNo Full Text
gro.griffith.authorSteinvik, Henriette R.


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