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Study · Randomized controlled trial · n = 80 · 2022

6 results

Oral Administration of Oxytocin, Like Intranasal Administration, Decreases Top-Down Social Attention.

Zhuang Q, Zheng X, Yao S, Zhao W, Becker B, Xu X, Kendrick KM

The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology1 Nov 2022Cited by 22 (Europe PMC)

PMID36053298 (opens in a new tab)PMCIDPMC9670742 (opens in a new tab)DOI10.1093/ijnp/pyac059 (opens in a new tab)PepBankPUB-36053298
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Summary

BackgroundThe neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) modulates social cognition by increasing attention to social cues and may have therapeutic potential for impaired social attention in conditions such as autism spectrum disorder. Intranasal administration of OXT is widely used to examine the drug's functional effects in both adults and children and is assumed to enter the brain directly via this route. However, OXT can also influence brain function through increased blood concentrations, and we have recently shown that orally (lingual) administered OXT also modulates neural responses to emotional faces and may be better tolerated for therapeutic use. Here, we examine whether 24 IU OXT administered orally can facilitate social attention.MethodsIn a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.ResultsOur findings showed that in terms of top-down attention, oral OXT increased errors for both social (angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral emotion faces) and nonsocial stimuli (oval shapes) in the antisaccade condition but increased response latencies only in the social condition. It also significantly reduced post-task state anxiety, but this reduction was not correlated with task performance. A comparison with our previous intranasal OXT study using the same task revealed that both routes have a similar effect on increasing antisaccade errors and response latencies and on reducing state anxiety.ConclusionsOverall, our findings suggest that oral administration of OXT produces similar effects on top-down social attention control and anxiety to intranasal administration and may therefore have therapeutic utility.
CC BYText from Europe PMC. Highlighted sentences are the source of results.

Results from this study6

6 results from studies that gave the peptide. 6 results from people.

  1. 01HumanRandomized controlled trialEfficacy outcome

    In 80 healthy men, oral oxytocin increased antisaccade errors for social (emotion face) stimuli compared with placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy men, oxytocin taken by mouth led to more errors on face stimuli in an attention task than placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    IncreaseAntisaccade errors, social stimuli
    Study

    n = 80

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    24 IU · oral (lingual)As given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    in terms of top-down attention, oral OXT increased errors for both social (angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral emotion faces) and nonsocial stimuli (oval shapes) in the antisaccade condition
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.
  2. 02HumanRandomized controlled trialEfficacy outcome

    In 80 healthy men, oral oxytocin increased antisaccade errors for nonsocial stimuli (oval shapes) compared with placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy men, oxytocin taken by mouth led to more errors on shape stimuli in an attention task than placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    IncreaseAntisaccade errors, nonsocial stimuli
    Study

    n = 80

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    24 IU · oral (lingual)As given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    in terms of top-down attention, oral OXT increased errors for both social (angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral emotion faces) and nonsocial stimuli (oval shapes) in the antisaccade condition
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.
  3. 03HumanRandomized controlled trialEfficacy outcome

    In 80 healthy men, oral oxytocin increased response latencies in the social condition compared with placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy men, oxytocin taken by mouth slowed responses to faces in an attention task compared with placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    IncreaseAntisaccade response latency, social condition
    Study

    n = 80

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    24 IU · oral (lingual)As given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    in terms of top-down attention, oral OXT increased errors for both social (angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral emotion faces) and nonsocial stimuli (oval shapes) in the antisaccade condition but increased response latencies only in the social condition
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.
  4. 04HumanRandomized controlled trialEfficacy outcome

    In 80 healthy men, oral oxytocin did not increase response latencies in the nonsocial condition compared with placebo.

    In plain wordsIn healthy men, oxytocin taken by mouth did not slow responses to shapes in an attention task compared with placebo.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    No significant changeAntisaccade response latency, nonsocial condition
    Study

    n = 80

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    24 IU · oral (lingual)As given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    in terms of top-down attention, oral OXT increased errors for both social (angry, fearful, happy, sad, and neutral emotion faces) and nonsocial stimuli (oval shapes) in the antisaccade condition but increased response latencies only in the social condition
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.
  5. 05HumanRandomized controlled trialEfficacy outcome

    In 80 healthy men, oral oxytocin significantly reduced post-task state anxiety compared with placebo; the reduction did not correlate with task performance.

    In plain wordsIn healthy men, oxytocin taken by mouth lowered anxiety after the task more than placebo, but this did not track task performance.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    DecreasePost-task state anxiety
    Study

    n = 80

    Comparator
    Placebo
    Outcome group
    Anxiety and mood · Mental health and mood
    Studied dose
    24 IU · oral (lingual)As given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    It also significantly reduced post-task state anxiety, but this reduction was not correlated with task performance.
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.
  6. 06HumanRandomized controlled trialEfficacy outcome

    A comparison with a previous intranasal oxytocin study showed that both routes had a similar effect on antisaccade errors, response latencies and state anxiety.

    In plain wordsOxytocin by mouth had effects similar to nasal oxytocin from an earlier study on attention errors, response times and anxiety.

    Peptide
    Oxytocin
    Outcome
    No significant changeOral versus intranasal oxytocin effects on antisaccade errors, latencies and state anxiety
    Study

    n: not reported in source

    Comparator
    Intranasal oxytocin (previous study)
    Outcome group
    Cognition and memory · Nervous system and cognition
    Studied dose
    24 IU · oral (lingual)As given in this study (human).

    Source sentences

    Summary
    A comparison with our previous intranasal OXT study using the same task revealed that both routes have a similar effect on increasing antisaccade errors and response latencies and on reducing state anxiety.
    1 context sentence
    Summary · context
    In a randomized, placebo-controlled pharmacologic study, we used a validated emotional antisaccade eye-tracking paradigm to explore the effects of oral OXT on bottom-up and top-down attention processing in 80 healthy male participants.

AI wrote and checked these results. AI can make mistakes, so check important results against the source.

Version history

PepBank keeps every version of the data on this study. Status changes from Retraction Watch, Europe PMC and Crossref are listed with their source.

  1. Version 2Current

    11 Oct 2026, 00:50 UTC

    Study results updated

  2. Version 1

    9 Oct 2026, 02:48 UTC

    First added · source update from Europe PMC

Subjects

Terms as the source lists them.

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