Brain Ethics has found an intriguing study which suggests that giving people the hormone oxytocin makes them better at reading emotion from other people’s eyes.

Oxytocin is a hormone that also works as a neurotransmitter, and is known to be involved in bonding experiences.

It is released during sex, and also when mothers breast feed their infants.

A 2005 study published in Nature [pdf] suggested that oxytocin increased trustfulness in people playing a co-operative investment game.

This study, published in Biological Psychiatry, is the first to suggest that the a burst of the hormone actually makes us better at perceiving others’ emotions.

The full text of the study is available online as a pdf file if you want to get more details about the research.

Link to Brain Ethics article ‘Oxytocin is the window to the soul’.

pdf of full-text of scientific study.