Target Engagement and Response to Oxytocin

Effects of Oxytocin on Social Cognition Training: Relationship to Target Engagement

This study will measure whether the engagement of intranasal oxytocin with a brain target is related to effects on learning during a social cognition training program.

The study will determine whether oxytocin (OT) administration 30 min before a training session enhances the learning of social information in the context of a social cognitive skills training (SCST) program, and it will test a possible mediator of this effect. Subjects with psychotic disorders will be randomized to one of four groups in a 2 by 2 factorial design: OT with SCST; Placebo with SCST; OT with training control condition; placebo with training control condition. Target engagement will be measured in an OT challenge (placebo versus OT one week apart) prior to baseline assessment. The measure of target engagement will be EEG mu suppression while observing biological motion. A social cognition battery will be administered at baseline, at midpoint after 6 weeks of SCST, and at completion of training at 12 weeks. The battery will include measures of social cue identification and mentalizing.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder
• stable on an antipsychotic medication

Exclusion Criteria:

• positive pregnancy test history of head injury