TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex-specific associations between peripheral oxytocin and emotion perception in schizophrenia
AU - Rubin, Leah H.
AU - Carter, C. Sue
AU - Drogos, Lauren
AU - Jamadar, Rhoda
AU - Pournajafi-Nazarloo, Hossein
AU - Sweeney, John A.
AU - Maki, Pauline M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This publication was made possible by grant number F31MH082480 from the National Institute of Mental Health , grant number K12HD055892 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) , and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health. Other support for this work was by a Psi Chi Graduate Research Grant, by the Alice J. Dan Dissertation Award from the UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender (CRWG) , and by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) , award number UL1RR029879 from the National Center for Research Resources , and by the Core Lab of the GCRC/CNRU at the University of Alabama, which is supported by NIH grants M01-RR-00032 , P30-DK56336 . Validation of the oxytocin assay was supported by MH 072935 (CSC) . Dr. Sweeney is supported by a Humboldt Research Award for Senior Research Scientists. We would also like to thank Erin Eatough, Antonia Savarese, Mary Winters, Pamela Perschler, Stephanie Klenotich, Jessica Jandak, and Melissa Arcabos for their assistance with this study. Special thanks goes to Ellen Herbener, Jim Pellegrino, Julie Dumas, Cherise Rosen, Sheila Dowd, Sandra Wilkniss and the Thresholds Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, and the Center for Cognitive Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Funding Information:
Dr. Sweeney is a consultant to Pfizer and has a research grant from Janssen. Dr. Maki received honoraria from the American Nutraceutical Association and research support from the Soy Health Research Program. All other authors declare that, except for income received from their primary employer, no financial support or compensation has been received from any individual or corporate entity over the past 3 years for research or professional service, and there are no personal financial holdings that could be perceived as constituting a potential conflict of interest.
PY - 2011/8
Y1 - 2011/8
N2 - Background: We previously reported that higher levels of peripheral oxytocin are associated with lower levels of positive, general, and overall symptoms in women but not in men with schizophrenia. Here we investigate the influence of sex, sex steroid hormone fluctuations, and peripheral oxytocin levels on emotional processing in men and women with schizophrenia. Method: Twenty-two women with schizophrenia and 31 female controls completed the Penn Emotion Acuity Test (PEAT), a facial emotion recognition and perception task, during two menstrual cycle phases: 1) early follicular (Days 2-4; low estrogen/progesterone) and 2) midluteal (Days 20-22; high estrogen/progesterone). Twenty-six males with schizophrenia and 26 male controls completed testing at comparable intervals. We obtained plasma hormone assays of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and oxytocin. Results: No sex differences were noted on the PEAT. Plasma oxytocin levels did not fluctuate across phases of the menstrual cycle. However, female patients and controls more accurately identified facial emotions during the early follicular versus midluteal phase (p< 0.05). Higher oxytocin levels related to perceiving faces as happier in both female patients (r= -0.46, p= 0.04) and controls (r= -0.40, p= 0.04) but not in men. Conclusion: Like healthy women, women with schizophrenia demonstrate menstrual-cycle dependent fluctuations in recognizing emotional cues. Like healthy women, female patients with higher levels of oxytocin perceived faces as happier. Future studies need to address whether this sex-specific relationship is associated with trust and other positive emotions, and whether exogenous oxytocin might enhance mood states and social interaction in female or all schizophrenia patients.
AB - Background: We previously reported that higher levels of peripheral oxytocin are associated with lower levels of positive, general, and overall symptoms in women but not in men with schizophrenia. Here we investigate the influence of sex, sex steroid hormone fluctuations, and peripheral oxytocin levels on emotional processing in men and women with schizophrenia. Method: Twenty-two women with schizophrenia and 31 female controls completed the Penn Emotion Acuity Test (PEAT), a facial emotion recognition and perception task, during two menstrual cycle phases: 1) early follicular (Days 2-4; low estrogen/progesterone) and 2) midluteal (Days 20-22; high estrogen/progesterone). Twenty-six males with schizophrenia and 26 male controls completed testing at comparable intervals. We obtained plasma hormone assays of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and oxytocin. Results: No sex differences were noted on the PEAT. Plasma oxytocin levels did not fluctuate across phases of the menstrual cycle. However, female patients and controls more accurately identified facial emotions during the early follicular versus midluteal phase (p< 0.05). Higher oxytocin levels related to perceiving faces as happier in both female patients (r= -0.46, p= 0.04) and controls (r= -0.40, p= 0.04) but not in men. Conclusion: Like healthy women, women with schizophrenia demonstrate menstrual-cycle dependent fluctuations in recognizing emotional cues. Like healthy women, female patients with higher levels of oxytocin perceived faces as happier. Future studies need to address whether this sex-specific relationship is associated with trust and other positive emotions, and whether exogenous oxytocin might enhance mood states and social interaction in female or all schizophrenia patients.
KW - Emotion perception
KW - Emotion recognition
KW - Menstrual cycle
KW - Oxytocin
KW - Schizophrenia
KW - Social cognition
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U2 - 10.1016/j.schres.2011.06.002
DO - 10.1016/j.schres.2011.06.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 21684122
AN - SCOPUS:79960306770
SN - 0920-9964
VL - 130
SP - 266
EP - 270
JO - Schizophrenia Research
JF - Schizophrenia Research
IS - 1-3
ER -