***TASK*** the task is to summarize an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***INPUT*** the input is a biomedical literature 
    ***OUTPUT*** the output is the summary of an input biomedical literature in six sentences 
    ***DOCUMENTATION*** 
    ***EXAMPLES*** 
    Input: Oxytocin has numerous prosocial and antipsychotic-like effects in animals . Prosocial effects of acute intranasal oxytocin administration have also been reported in human subjects . We conducted a r and omized , placebo-controlled trial testing the effects of twice daily intranasal oxytocin treatment for 14 days on psychotic symptoms and social cognition in patients with schizophrenia .  PANSS scores declined significantly and several social cognition measures improved significantly or nearly significantly in oxytocin ( N=11 ) but not placebo ( N=9 ) recipients . Our results suggest that , in addition to reducing classic psychotic symptoms , oxytocin may diminish certain social cognition deficits that are not improved by current antipsychotic medications Trust pervades human societies . Trust is indispensable in friendship , love , families and organizations , and plays a key role in economic exchange and politics . In the absence of trust among trading partners , market transactions break down . In the absence of trust in a country 's institutions and leaders , political legitimacy breaks down . Much recent evidence indicates that trust contributes to economic , political and social success . Little is known , however , about the biological basis of trust among humans . Here we show that intranasal administration of oxytocin , a neuropeptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals , causes a substantial increase in  trust among humans , thereby greatly increasing the benefits from social interactions . We also show that the effect of oxytocin on trust is not due to a general increase in the readiness to bear risks . On the contrary , oxytocin specifically affects an individual 's willingness to accept social risks arising through interpersonal interactions . These results concur with animal research suggesting an essential role for oxytocin as a biological basis of prosocial approach behaviour Impairments in social cognition are common in schizophrenia and predict poor functional outcome . The purpose of this proof-of-concept r and omized , parallel group clinical trial was to assess whether intranasal oxytocin ( OT ) , given before social cognitive training , enhances learning of social cognitive skills .  Twenty seven male out patients with schizophrenia participated in a 6-week ( 12 session ) training on social cognitive skills . Training focused on three domains : facial affect recognition , social perception , and empathy . Subjects were r and omly assigned ( double blind ) to receive either intranasal OTor placebo 30 min before each session . Participants did not receive OT between sessions or on the day of assessment s. We evaluated scores on social-cognition measures , as well as clinical symptoms and neurocognition , at baseline , 1 week following the final training session , and 1 month later . Our prespecified primary outcome measure was a social-cognition composite score comprised of five individual measures . There were main effects of time ( indicating improvement across the combined-treatment groups ) on the social-cognition composite score at both 1 week and 1 month following completion of training . Subjects receiving OT demonstrated significantly greater improvements in empathic accuracy than those receiving placebo at both posttreatment and 1 month follow up . There were no OT-related effects for the other social cognitive tests , clinical symptoms , or neurocognition . This study provides initial support for the idea that OT enhances the effectiveness of training when administered shortly before social cognitive training sessions . The effects were most pronounced on empathic accuracy , a high-level social cognitive process that is not easily improved in current social cognitive remediation programs Background Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that is associated with increased trust . Perceptions of trustworthiness are associated with detection of positive facial affect , which suggests that oxytocin may enhance the recognition of positive facial affect . The present study tests this hypothesis . Methods A double-blind , between-groups design was used , with 50 volunteers r and omly assigned to receive intranasally administered oxytocin or placebo .  Thirty-five minutes following the administration of oxytocin or placebo , participants identified anger , disgust , fear , happiness , sadness , and surprise expressions that were morphed with neutral faces such that they varied from 10 % to 100 % intensity . Results Oxytocin significantly and specifically improved the recognition of happy facial expressions ; no significant differences in recognition of other expression were found . The improvement was not associated with gender , response biases , or changes in mood , and it was most pronounced for subtle expressions . Conclusions Acute oxytocin administration enhances healthy adults ’ ability to accurately identify positive emotional facial expressions . These findings reinforce oxytocin ’s role in facilitating affiliative interactions and have implication s for the treatment of conditions that are marked by social affiliation deficits Deficits in social cognition are common in schizophrenia and predict poor community functioning . Given the current limitations of psychosocial treatments and the lack of pharmacological treatments for social cognitive deficits , the development of novel therapeutic agents could greatly enhance functional recovery in schizophrenia . This study evaluated whether a single dose of intranasal oxytocin acutely improves social cognitive functioning in schizophrenia . Twenty-three male veterans with schizophrenia completed baseline assessment s of social cognition that were divided into lower-level ( facial affect perception , social perception , detection of lies ) and higher-level ( detection of sarcasm and deception , empathy ) processes . One week later , patients received the same battery after being r and omized to a single dose of 40 IU intranasal oxytocin or placebo . Though the groups did not differ significantly on the social cognition composite score ,  oxytocin improved performance for the higher-level social cognitive tasks ( Cohen 's d=1.0 , p=0.045 ) . Subjects were unable to accurately guess which treatment they had received . The improvements found in higher-level social cognition encourage further studies into the therapeutic potential of oxytocin in schizophrenia The neuropeptide oxytocin ( OT ) is well known for its profound effects on social behavior , which appear to be mediated by an OT-dependent modulation of amygdala activity in the context of social stimuli . In humans , OT decreases amygdala reactivity to threatening faces in males , but enhances amygdala reactivity to similar faces in females , suggesting sex-specific differences in OT-dependent threat-processing . To further explore whether OT generally enhances amygdala-dependent threat-processing in females , we used functional magnetic resonance imaging ( fMRI ) in a r and omized within-subject crossover design to measure amygdala activity in response to threatening and non-threatening scenes in 14 females following intranasal administration of OT or placebo .  Participants ' eye movements were recorded to investigate whether an OT-dependent modulation of amygdala activity is accompanied by enhanced exploration of salient scene features . Although OT had no effect on participants ' gazing behavior , it increased amygdala reactivity to scenes depicting social and non-social threat . In females , OT may , thus , enhance the detection of threatening stimuli in the environment , potentially by interacting with gonadal steroids , such as progesterone and estrogen To what extent do we share feelings with others ? Neuroimaging investigations of the neural mechanisms involved in the perception of pain in others may cast light on one basic component of human empathy , the interpersonal sharing of affect . In this fMRI study , participants were shown a series of still photographs of h and s and feet in situations that are likely to cause pain , and a matched set of control photographs without any painful events . They were asked to assess on-line the level of pain experienced by the person in the photographs . The results demonstrated that perceiving and assessing painful situations in others was associated with significant bilateral changes in activity in several regions notably , the anterior cingulate , the anterior insula , the cerebellum , and to a lesser extent the thalamus . These regions are known to play a significant role in pain processing . Finally , the activity in the anterior cingulate was strongly correlated with the participants ' ratings of the others ' pain , suggesting that the activity of this brain region is modulated according to subjects ' reactivity to the pain of others . Our findings suggest that there is a partial cerebral commonality between perceiving pain in another individual and experiencing it oneself . This study adds to our underst and ing of the neurological mechanisms implicated in intersubjectivity and human empathy BACKGROUND In nonhuman mammals , oxytocin has a critical role in peer recognition and social approach behavior . In humans , oxytocin has been found to enhance trust and the ability to interpret the emotions of others . It has been suggested that oxytocin may enhance facial processing by increasing focus on the eye region of human faces . METHODS In a double-blind , r and omized , placebo-controlled , between-subject design , we tracked the eye movements of 52 healthy male volunteers who were presented with 24 neutral human faces after intranasal administration of 24 IU oxytocin or placebo .  RESULTS Participants given oxytocin showed an increased number of fixations and total gaze time toward the eye region compared with placebo participants . CONCLUSIONS Oxytocin increases gaze specifically toward the eye region of human faces . This may be one mechanism by which oxytocin enhances emotion recognition , interpersonal communication , and social approach behavior in humans . Findings suggest a possible role for oxytocin in the treatment of disorders characterized by eye-gaze avoidance and facial processing deficits Oxytocin is known to regulate prosocial behavior and social cognition in animals ( Ross & Young , 2009 ) , and recent studies suggest that oxytocin may have similar functions in humans . For example , oxytocin increases trust ( Kosfeld , Heinrichs , Zak , Fischbacher , & Fehr , 2005 ) and accuracy in mental-state attribution ( Domes , Heinrichs , Michel , Berger , & Herpertz , 2007 ; Guastella et al. , 2009 ) . These findings have generated excitement about oxytocin ’s potential to ameliorate social deficits in such disorders as social phobia and autism ( Bartz & Holl and er , 2006 ; Guastella et al. , 2009 ; Kosfeld et al. , 2005 ) . This excitement has not been confined to the scientific community : Dubbed the “ hormone of love , ” oxytocin is a common topic in the popular press . Is oxytocin truly a universal social panacea ? Although some studies have shown that oxytocin improves social cognition and empathy ( Domes et al. , 2007 ; Guastella et al. , 2009 ) , others have not ( Singer et al. , 2008 ) . Even studies demonstrating positive effects have ambiguities : Domes et al. ( 2007 ) found that oxytocin improved performance for difficult — but not easy — test items . These observations imply that rather than working universally , oxytocin may selectively facilitate social cognition given certain constraints . For example , by altering specific motivational or cognitive states , oxytocin might increase the salience of social cues , which in turn could improve social-cognitive performance for some individuals , but not others . The effects of oxytocin , then , should be most pronounced in individuals who — at baseline — are less socially proficient ; this would be consistent with broader interactionist views emphasizing that individual differences in competencies interact with situational variables to determine behavior ( Mischel & Shoda , 1995 ) . To test whether normal variance in social proficiency  moderates the effects of oxytocin on social-cognitive performance , we used a r and omized , double-blind , placebo-controlled , crossover challenge in which participants received either intranasal oxytocin or a placebo and performed an empathicaccuracy task that naturalistically measures social-cognitive abilities ( Zaki , Bolger , & Ochsner , 2008 ) . We measured variance in baseline social competencies with the Autism Spectrum Quotient ( AQ ; Baron-Cohen , Wheelwright , Skinner , Martin , & Clubley , 2001 ) , a self-report instrument that predicts social-cognitive performance ( Baron-Cohen , Wheelwright , Hill , Raste , & Plumb , 2001 ) . We hypothesized that drug condition and AQ score would interact to predict performance on the empathic-accuracy task  , with oxytocin having the most pronounced effects for less socially proficient individuals ( i.e. , those with higher AQ scores ) Social-cognitive deficits contribute to poor functional outcomes in early psychosis ; however , no effective pharmacological treatments exist for these problems . This study was the first to investigate the efficacy of an extended treatment of oxytocin nasal spray combined with social cognition training ( SCT ) to improve social cognition , clinical symptoms , and social functioning in early psychosis . In a double-blind , r and omized , placebo-controlled , between-subjects trial , 52 individuals ( aged 16 - 35 years ) diagnosed with an early psychosis schizophrenia-spectrum illness were recruited . Participants received oxytocin ( 24 International Units ) or placebo nasal spray twice-daily for 6 weeks , combined with group SCT ( 2 × 1 hour weekly sessions for 6 weeks ) . An additional dose of oxytocin was administered before each weekly session . Assessment s were conducted at baseline , post-treatment , and at 3-month follow-up . Primary outcomes included the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test , the Scale for the Assessment of Positive and Negative Symptoms , and the Social Functioning Scale . Secondary outcomes included self-report and behavioral assessment s of social cognition , symptom severity , and social functioning . Results showed that on all primary and secondary outcomes , there was no benefit of oxytocin nasal spray treatment in comparison to placebo . Exploratory post hoc analysis suggested that increased use of nasal spray was , however , associated with reductions in negative symptoms in the oxytocin condition only . This study represents the first evaluation of oxytocin treatment for early psychosis . Although results suggest no benefit of oxytocin treatment , results also highlight an urgent need to consider nasal spray delivery and dose-related variables for future clinical trials BACKGROUND Individuals with schizophrenia have functionally significant deficits in 
    Output:
    
Oxytocin is assumed to be a potential therapeutic agent for schizophrenia , with a special link to social cognitive functions .
The oxytocinergic system is a promising neuromodulator of emotion recognition that may have the potential to normalize the social dysfunction seen in schizophrenia .