RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Oxytocin Enhances Amygdala-Dependent, Socially Reinforced Learning and Emotional Empathy in Humans JF The Journal of Neuroscience JO J. Neurosci. FD Society for Neuroscience SP 4999 OP 5007 DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5538-09.2010 VO 30 IS 14 A1 Hurlemann, René A1 Patin, Alexandra A1 Onur, Oezguer A. A1 Cohen, Michael X. A1 Baumgartner, Tobias A1 Metzler, Sarah A1 Dziobek, Isabel A1 Gallinat, Juergen A1 Wagner, Michael A1 Maier, Wolfgang A1 Kendrick, Keith M. YR 2010 UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/14/4999.abstract AB Oxytocin (OT) is becoming increasingly established as a prosocial neuropeptide in humans with therapeutic potential in treatment of social, cognitive, and mood disorders. However, the potential of OT as a general facilitator of human learning and empathy is unclear. The current double-blind experiments on healthy adult male volunteers investigated first whether treatment with intranasal OT enhanced learning performance on a feedback-guided item–category association task where either social (smiling and angry faces) or nonsocial (green and red lights) reinforcers were used, and second whether it increased either cognitive or emotional empathy measured by the Multifaceted Empathy Test. Further experiments investigated whether OT-sensitive behavioral components required a normal functional amygdala. Results in control groups showed that learning performance was improved when social rather than nonsocial reinforcement was used. Intranasal OT potentiated this social reinforcement advantage and greatly increased emotional, but not cognitive, empathy in response to both positive and negative valence stimuli. Interestingly, after OT treatment, emotional empathy responses in men were raised to levels similar to those found in untreated women. Two patients with selective bilateral damage to the amygdala (monozygotic twins with congenital Urbach–Wiethe disease) were impaired on both OT-sensitive aspects of these learning and empathy tasks, but performed normally on nonsocially reinforced learning and cognitive empathy. Overall these findings provide the first demonstration that OT can facilitate amygdala-dependent, socially reinforced learning and emotional empathy in men.