Intranasal oxytocin improves interoceptive accuracy and heart-beat evoked potentials in a cardiac interoceptive task

Background. Interoception represents perception of the internal bodily state which is closely associated with social/emotional processing and physical health in humans. Understanding the mechanism underlying interoceptive processing, particularly its modulation, is thus of great importance. Given overlap between oxytocinergic pathways and interoceptive signaling substrates in both peripheral visceral organs and the brain, intranasal oxytocin administration is a promising approach for modulating interoceptive processing. Methods. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, 80 healthy male participants were recruited to perform a cardiac interoceptive task during electroencephalograph (EEG) and electrocardiograph (ECG) recording to examine whether intranasal administration of the neuropeptide oxytocin can modulate interoceptive processing. We also collected data in a resting state to examine whether we could replicate previous findings. Results. Results showed that in the interoceptive task oxytocin increased interoceptive accuracy at the behavioral level which was paralleled by larger heartbeat-evoked potential amplitudes on the neural level. Heartbeat-evoked potential amplitudes were found to be positively correlated with interoceptive accuracy across groups. However, there were no significant effects of oxytocin on EEG or ECG during resting-state. Conclusions. These findings suggest that oxytocin may only have a facilitatory effect on interoceptive processing during task-based conditions. Our findings not only provide new insights into the modulation of interoceptive processing via targeting the oxytocinergic system but also provide proof of concept evidence for the therapeutic potential of intranasal oxytocin in mental disorders with dysfunctional interoception. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial NCT05245708 ### Funding Statement This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (grant number: 2023NSFSC1187) and the Humanity and Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (grant number: 22XJC190003). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics committee of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors