xytocin Increases Gaze to the Eye Region f Human Faces dam

he capacity to develop social attachments is fundamental to the healthy development of individuals and communities, as is evident across parent-child attachments, intimate ouples, peer friendships, and professional partnerships (1). lternatively, abnormalities in the processing of social informaion and the regulation of close attachments are associated with irtually every form of human psychopathology (2). Animal esearch has identified a role for the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) n enhancing social recognition and approach behavior, while lso decreasing social avoidance and aggression (3). These indings have led some (2) to suggest that OT may have a role in he enhancement and treatment of relationships (i.e., parenthild bonds, couple distress), and the amelioration of disorders haracterized by social deficits (i.e., autism, schizophrenia). Few studies have examined the effect of OT administration on ocial-cognitive processes in humans. Initial research has shown hat OT nasal administration (24–27 IU) enhances trust (4), dentification of emotions from the eyes of others (5), the enefits of social support during social stress tasks (6), and educed responsiveness to social threat stimuli (7). In Domes t al. (5), for example, 30 male subjects received OT (24 IU) or a lacebo before tests of one’s ability to read subtle facial cues of nternal emotion states. The OT participants were better able to nfer the emotion state of the actors, and effects were stronger for aces rated difficult to read. Domes et al. (5) argued one possible echanism underlying this effect was OT enhancement of eye aze during face perception. Face perception is a basic process in interpersonal commuication (8). Critical information is taken from the eyes and, to a esser extent, the mouth, where individuals assess the degree of nterest, threat, and emotion of another (5,8). In fact, amount of