Oxytocin enhances the perception of biological motion in humans

Evidence suggests that intranasally administered oxytocin modulates several social cognitive and emotional processes in humans. In this study, we investigated the effect of oxytocin on the perception of biological motion (a walking character) and nonbiological motion (a rotating shape). The participants were 20 healthy volunteers who observed moving dots embedded among a cloud of noise (mask) dots. Sensitivity (d') for motion detection was determined after the administration of oxytocin and placebo. The results showed that oxytocin (relative to placebo) administration increased sensitivity to biological motion but not to nonbiological motion. These results suggest that oxytocin specifically modulates the perception of socially relevant stimuli.