Peer Review

This manuscript is a one session psychopharmacological study that is divided in two

times. Eighty healthy young participants were randomly assigned to 50 mg of
naltrexone (n= 40) or placebo (n= 40) which was enough to alter left ventral striatum
(VS) activity to one’s own close others but not strangers and it was known the
pharmacokinetics of oral naltrexone. The drugs were dispensed in a double-blind
manner. The experimental session consisted in a baseline physical symptoms report
measure (Time 1) where the participants were randomly assigned to naltrexone or
placebo. 60 min after drug administration participants completed an fMRI scan where
they viewed images of their close others and individuals they had not seen before.
Then postscan questionnaires were collected (Time 2). The brain activity to both close
others and strangers was assessed. The main focus was on activity in the VS due to the
fundamental influence of this region to social connection behavior in animals and in
humans (close others). In the placebo group, feelings of social connection toward two
of one’s own close others and VS activity to the same individuals were expected to
decrease after naltrexone administration. They didn’t expect any effect of naltrexone
on VS activity to strangers.

The manuscript is extremely well written, it presents a good introduction regarding the
Brain Opioid Theory of Social Attachment (BOTSA) that is a long-standing animal model
of social connection in humans, investigates the causal contribution of opioids to social
connections toward close others and strangers within the same study and link the
brain activity in response to close others with feelings of social connection to the same
individuals. Moreover, the method and the statistical analyses are well presented and
explained so it makes it easier to understand the results.

The discussion expresses the main results in a deep way and compare the study
findings with other studies done before, this suggest that they are being critical with
their results. Furthermore, they add to the manuscript clinical relevance, limitations
and future directions in order to improve futures investigations and move forward in
the field of opiates.

Neus Sangròs Vidal

Correction:
- Be critic with the Naltrexone
- Get deeper into the replications
- Recommendation:
 NO
 Major
 Minor
- Small difference
- No graphics
- Be critic with the effect size (this is small)
- Addiction of the opioid
- Pre-registration: clinicaltrials.gov
- fMRI: SPM8 (8mm Gaussian Kernel-usually is 5mm)
- The experiment can’t be generalized
- Find a way to run the experiment better

Neurosynth.org