NCT05892939

Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Fear Processing in Naturalistic Contexts

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 69 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China · Academic / Other
• Sex: Male
• Age: 18 Years – 30 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The main aim of the study is to investigate the modulatory effects of intranasal oxytocin (24IU) on fear in naturalistic social and non-social contexts and the underlying neural mechanisms.

Detailed description

In a double-blind placebo-controlled between-subject experimental design, 60 adult male subjects will be randomly allocated to receive either intranasal oxytocin (24IU, n= 30) or placebo (n = 30) nasal spray. 45 minutes after treatment the participants will undergo a naturalistic fear induction paradigm during fMRI. During the paradigm video clips of 25s lengths will be presented showing fear-inducing situations in social and non-social contexts as well as corresponding control video clips. Following each clip subjects are required to rate their level of subjective fear on a rating scale ranging from 1 (no fear) to 9 (highest fear). Participants will undergo screening for psychopathological and emotional states before treatment. Together with a randomized assignment to the treatment groups, this will allow controlling for confounding between-group differences.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	intranasal Oxytocin(24IU)	Administration of intranasal Oxytocin(24IU)
DRUG	intranasal Placebo	Administration of intranasal Placebo

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-05-23
• Primary completion: 2024-04-01
• Completion: 2024-04-15
• First posted: 2023-06-07
• Last updated: 2025-04-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China