Background
CORTEX
A number of oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) administration studies point to a possible role for these neuropeptides in improving mentalizing (Brunnlieb, Münte, Tempelmann, & Heldmann, The majority of these studies include the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, A few studies have examined the effects of OT on other mentalizing tasks. In healthy control groups, one study (Although there is limited evidence for a behavioral effect of OT on mentalizing, it is possible that OT affects neural regions associated with mentalizing even in the absence of behavioral changes. The mentalizing network includes the temporoparietal junction (TPJ)/posterior superior temporal sulcus, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the temporal poles, and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus (Mar, Compared to OT, even less research has examined the effects of AVP on mentalizing. In one study, AVP reduced mentalizing ability in the RMET (In the present study, we recruited a large sample (