Oxytocin Effects on Self and Other Processing

To determine whether the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) influences self-processing by investigating whether it increases the endowment effect in relation to both self and others.

In a double-blind, between- subject placebo (PLC) controlled design, investigator aimed to measure the effect of intranasal OXT on the endowment effect. All subjects completed a range of questionnaires measuring personality and affective traits and levels of anxiety before self-administration: Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) , State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) , Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), self-esteem scale (SES). Subjects were asked to decide whether to buy or sell their own or others' (their mothers'/ fathers'/ classmate'/ strangers') possessions at various prices. Indifference point and brain activation were inluded into analysis as dependent variables.

Inclusion Criteria:

• healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorders

Exclusion Criteria:

• history of head injury;
• claustrophobia;
• medical or psychiatric illness.