Background
Arginine vasopressin (AVP) has a complex but crucial role in social behavior. In nonhuman
mammals it facilitates social recognition and bonding while also promoting defensive,
aggressive, and territorial behaviors. There has been little research in humans exploring
its effect on social cognition, including the encoding of social memories.
Methods
In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, we administered
AVP (20 IU) or a placebo intranasally to 48 healthy human male volunteers and then
presented 54 happy, angry, or neutral human faces. Participants returned the following
day to make “remember”, “know”, or “new” judgments for a mix of 108 new and previously
seen faces.
Results
Participants who were administered AVP were more likely to make know judgments for
previously seen happy and angry faces in comparison with neutral human faces. Arginine
vasopressin did not influence judgments for faces that had not been presented previously.
Conclusions
Administration of AVP to male humans enhances the encoding of both happy and angry
social information to make this more memorable. Results suggest that AVP could facilitate
both bonding and aggressive related behaviors in humans by enhancing the encoding
of positive and negative social cues within everyday interactions.
Key Words
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: May 06, 2010
Accepted:
March 9,
2010
Received in revised form:
February 17,
2010
Received:
January 11,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
