Social deficits are key hallmarks of the Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P) state and of established psychotic disorders, and contribute to impaired social functioning, indicating a potential target for interventions. However, current treatments do not significantly ameliorate social impairments in CHR-P individuals. Given its critical role in social behaviour and cognition, the oxytocinergic (OT) system is a promising target for novel interventions in CHR-P subjects. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, 30 CHR-P males were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on two occasions, once after 40IU self-administered intranasal OT and once after placebo. A modified version of the Sally-Anne task was used to assess brain activation during inferring others’ beliefs and social emotions. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test was acquired prior to the first scan to test whether OT effects were moderated by baseline social-emotional abilities. OT did not modulate behavioural performances but reduced activation in the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus compared with placebo while inferring others’ social emotions. Furthermore, the relationship between brain activation and task performance after OT administration was moderated by baseline social-emotional abilities. While task accuracy during inferring others’ social emotion increased with decreasing activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus in CHR-P individuals with low social-emotional abilities, there was no such relationship in CHR-P individuals with high social-emotional abilities. Our findings may suggest that acute OT administration enhances neural efficiency in the inferior frontal gyrus during inferring others’ social emotions in those CHR-P subjects with low baseline social-emotional abilities.

社交缺陷是临床精神病高风险 (CHR-P) 状态和已确定的精神障碍的关键标志，并导致社会功能受损，表明干预的潜在目标。然而，目前的治疗并不能显着改善 CHR-P 个体的社交障碍。鉴于催产素 (OT) 系统在社会行为和认知中的关键作用，它是 CHR-P 受试者新型干预措施的一个有希望的目标。在双盲、安慰剂对照、交叉设计中，对 30 名 CHR-P 男性进行了两次功能性磁共振成像 (fMRI) 研究，一次是在 40IU 自我鼻内 OT 给药后，另一次是在安慰剂后。莎莉-安妮任务的修改版本用于评估推断他人信念和社会情绪时的大脑激活情况。在第一次扫描之前进行“眼中读心”测试，以测试 OT 效应是否受到基线社交情感能力的调节。与安慰剂相比，OT 不会调节行为表现，但会减少双侧额下回的激活，同时推断他人的社交情绪。此外，OT 治疗后大脑激活和任务表现之间的关系受到基线社交情感能力的调节。在社交情感能力较低的 CHR-P 个体中，随着左额下回激活程度的降低，推断他人社交情感的任务准确性会增加，但在社交情感能力较高的 CHR-P 个体中却没有这种关系。我们的研究结果可能表明，对于那些基线社交情绪能力较低的 CHR-P 受试者，急性 OT 管理可以提高额下回在推断他人社交情绪时的神经效率。