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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jan 31.
Published in final edited form as: Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2014 Aug 1;25(2):265–282. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2014.07.012

Figure 1. Interactionist Model of the Effect of Oxytocin on Social Cognition.

Figure 1

Oxytocin’s effects on social cognition and functioning are modulated by baseline social cognition skills. There is a sweet spot of oxytocinergic tone/social cognition (i.e., optimal emotion recognition, mentalizing, salience and attention to emotional stimuli) and social functioning, below which social cognition is deficient (as in schizophrenia and autism, with positive effects of exogenous oxytocin) and beyond which social cognition is excessive/distorted (as in borderline personality disorder, with potentially negative effects of exogenous oxytocin).