Fig. 1.

Emotionally-valenced verbal cognitive tests. (ECAT, upper part) Bar-chart presenting each treatment group’s mean reaction time (with the corresponding S.D.) for liking positive personality traits and disliking negative ones. Independent of the treatment group and on average, participants tend to respond faster in liking personality traits with a positive valence than in disliking personality traits with a negative valence (the mean difference is 128 ms with 95% CI 76–177 ms, p < 0.001). (ECAT, lower part) Bar-chart presenting each treatment group’s mean %accuracy score (with the corresponding S.D.) for correctly categorising the personality traits as likable and dislikable. The subcutaneous-pulsatile treatment group (SCP) shows a significantly smaller %accuracy compared to the oral treatment group (PO) (the mean difference is 2.9% with 95% CI 0.3–5.5%, p = 0.029), and is also smaller (though statistically non-significant) in relation to the subcutaneous-continuous treatment group (SCC). (EREC, upper part) Bar-chart presenting each treatment group’s mean number of personality traits correctly recalled by the subjects (with the corresponding S.D.). Independent of the treatment group and on average, participants tend to recall more positively valenced personality traits than negatively valenced. (EREC, lower part) During the emotional recall task, apart from any accurate recalls, the volunteers were mistakenly recording positive and negative personality traits that they thought they’ve encountered during the ECAT session (which took place on average 8.5 min earlier). Participants in the SCP and SCC have mistakenly recalled significantly more positive than negative personality descriptors [mean difference 0.5 with 95% CI 0–1, p = 0.047, and 1.3 with 95% CI 0.4–2.2, p = 0.010, respectively]. ECAT: emotionally-valenced, self-referral word categorisation task, EREC: ECAT-related free recall task, S.D.: standard deviation.