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Yet, it remains unknown whether these effects extend to other markers implicated in depression and its treatment, such as approach-avoidance motivations that reflect innate drives to approach reward and evade harm. We sought to examine the impact of acute losartan, an angiotensin type 1 (AT\n                    <jats:sub>1<\/jats:sub>\n                    ) receptor blocker, on the implicit approach-avoidance of facial expressions and checkerboard controls in healthy adults. In a randomized controlled trial,\n                    <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u2009=\u200968 healthy adults aged 18\u201350 (49\u2009F\/19\u2009M) were administered a single 50\u2009mg dose of losartan or placebo before completing an implicit Approach Avoidance Task (AAT) at drug-peak level. On the AAT, participants responded to color-filtered facial stimuli (happy, sad, angry, or neutral) and checkerboard controls using a joystick, and were instructed to pull all gray photos and push all brown photos as quickly as possible. Compared to placebo, losartan induced a significant avoidance bias for sad faces (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u2009=\u20090.027) and reduced avoidance of angry faces at trend level (\n                    <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u2009=\u20090.085). This occurred without significant group differences on blood pressure, overall reaction time, accuracy, and approach-avoidance biases for other stimuli. The response pattern associated with AT\n                    <jats:sub>1<\/jats:sub>\n                    receptor blockade may counteract previously observed depressive tendencies, suggesting effects possibly consistent with antidepressant treatments. Our findings further highlight the RAS as a mechanistically relevant target for psychiatry, suggesting that AT\n                    <jats:sub>1<\/jats:sub>\n                    receptor antagonism may have relevance for treating depression and other emotional disorders characterized by aberrant motivational biases (Clincialtrials.gov ID: NCT06624904).\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41386-026-02554-4","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T10:40:41Z","timestamp":1789468841000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Acute effects of AT1 receptor blockade on approach-avoidance of negative emotional faces"],"prefix":"10.1038","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5747-1036","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Divya","family":"Prasad","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-4028-380X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ina","family":"Pelster","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Leonardo","family":"Outes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4640-699X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amy","family":"Gillespie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7772-1143","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diego A.","family":"Pizzagalli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mike","family":"Rinck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5130-7318","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea","family":"Reinecke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"2554_CR1","unstructured":"World Health Organization. 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