Oxytocin changes behavior and spatio-temporal brain dynamics underlying inter-group conflict in humans.

Bastian Schiller, Gregor Domes, Markus Heinrichs

European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2020 Feb

filter terms:

Inter-group conflicts drive human discrimination, mass migration, and violence, but their psychobiological mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated whether the neuropeptide oxytocin modulates behavior and spatio-temporal brain dynamics in naturalistic inter-group conflict. Eighty-six male members of natural rival social groups received either oxytocin or placebo intranasally. In a decision-making paradigm involving real monetary stakes, participants could sacrifice their own resources to modulate the monetary gains and losses of in- and out-group members. Oxytocin eliminated the reduction in out-group gains - particularly in individuals with low emotional empathy, whereas those given placebo exhibited this negative social behavior. Our spatio-temporal analysis of event-related potentials elicited by outcome valuation revealed that oxytocin replaced a neurophysiological process associated with the negative valuation of out-group gains via a process associated with positive valuation between 200-500ms after outcome presentation. Oxytocin thus seems to modulate inter-group behavior in humans via a specific alteration of valuation-related brain dynamics. Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Citation

Bastian Schiller, Gregor Domes, Markus Heinrichs. Oxytocin changes behavior and spatio-temporal brain dynamics underlying inter-group conflict in humans. European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020 Feb;31:119-130