Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Systemizing and Empathizing Tasks in Children with and without Autism

Background: In Baron-Cohen’s Empathizing-Systemizing Theory of Autism, social deficits are described along the continuum of empathizing ability, or the ability to understand and respond to the emotions of others. Non-social aspects are characterized in terms of an increased preference for patterned or rule-based systems, called “systemizing.” 

Objectives: We developed automated eye-tracking tasks to measure visual attention to 1) more highly organized and structured real-life images (“systemizing”), and 2) images of human eyes in the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” task (“empathizing”). Then, as part of a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled crossover study, we examined the effect of intranasal oxytocin in 16 male children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), compared with 16 matched-controls.

Methods: In the systemizing task, participants viewed 14 slides, each containing 4 related pictures (e.g. of people, animals, scenes, or objects) that differed primarily on the degree of systemization. In the empathizing task, participants viewed 25 slides containing a picture of human eyes that characterize a particular emotion, and were asked to choose one of four surrounding words or phrases that describe the emotion portrayed. Visual attention was defined in terms of the observation time and count for each image, and was compared between ASD and control groups after receiving either oxytocin or placebo. 

Results: In the systemizing task, individuals with ASD preferred to fixate on more highly systemized pictures, while control subjects showed no gaze preference. Intranasal oxytocin reduced systemizing preference in ASD participants, but increased this preference for control subjects. In the empathizing task, ASD participants were significantly less accurate in identifying the correct emotion. While oxytocin did not enhance accuracy, it did increase the time spent by ASD participants viewing the eye region, while decreasing the relative time spent by control subjects (2-way interaction effect).

Conclusions: These results suggest that, while intranasal oxytocin has a contrasting effect in ASD and typical control children, it may enhance empathizing and decrease systemizing in children and adolescents with autism.