The associations between endogenous oxytocin levels and emotion recognitio in bipolar disorder
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Objective: Recent studies in patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) have revealed problems inemotion recognition, specifically for negative emotions, which have been subsequently relatedto amygdala activity. Previously, the prosocial neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to beone hormone that alters emotion perception capacities and modulates amygdala response.Accordingly, the aim of this study was to see if plasma oxytocin levels have specific effects onpredicting emotion recognition patterns in BD.Methods: Twenty-eight remitted BD patients were recruited for this study and the ViennaEmotion Recognition Task was given. In addition, blood samples were collected for plasmaoxytocin analysis.Results: Strong associations were found between fearful emotions and basal oxytocin levels,which were supported by a stepwise regression analysis. Patients with higher levels of basaloxytocin also exhibited greater recognition of fearful emotions.Conclusions: The relationship between recognition of fearful faces and individual endogenousoxytocin levels may contribute to explaining individual differences in social functioning andamygdala dysfunction in BD.