Neural substrates of sexual arousal in heterosexual males: event-related fMRI investigation

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background

Sexual behavior is an important role for the survival of species. The advancement of brain imaging methods has enabled the understanding of the brain mechanism related to sexual arousal. The previous studies on the brain mechanism related to sexual arousal have mostly conducted on block design paradigm.

Methods

Despite its requirement for stricter experimental control, the event-related paradigm is known to be more efficient in detecting instant emotional and cognitive responses. The paradigm also enables the observation of hemodynamic responses through time. Therefore, this study used the event-related fMRI to examine the brain activation in various areas associated with sexual arousal as well as changes in hemodynamic responses with time.

Results

Strong activations were observed in the various areas associated with sexual arousal comprised of various factors: (1) activation areas related to cognitive factors: the occipital lobe and parietal lobe; (2) activation areas related to emotional factors: the thalamus and amygdala; (3) activation areas related to motivational factors: the anterior cingulate gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula; and (4) activation areas related to physiological factors: the precentral gyrus, putamen, and globus pallidus. We also identified the activation of the putamen and globus pallidus that were not well observed in previous block design studies. In the result of the hemodynamic response, the neural activity in those areas showed more transient aspects of the hemodynamic responses relative to the neural activity of other areas.

Conclusions

These results suggested that the event-related paradigm is better at detecting the neural activity of the brain regions, which tend to appear suddenly, but disappear soon.

Related collections

Most cited references 36

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Neuroanatomical correlates of pleasant and unpleasant emotion.

Richard Lane, Eric M. Reiman, Margaret M Bradley … (1997)

Substantial evidence suggests that a key distinction in the classification of human emotion is that between an appetitive motivational system association with positive or pleasant emotion and an aversive motivational system associated with negative or unpleasant emotion. To explore the neural substrates of these two systems, 12 healthy women viewed sets of pictures previously demonstrated to elicit pleasant, unpleasant and neutral emotion, while positron emission tomographic (PET) measurements of regional cerebral blood flow were obtained. Pleasant and unpleasant emotions were each distinguished from neutral emotion conditions by significantly increased cerebral blood flow in the vicinity of the medial prefrontal cortex (Brodmann's area 9), thalamus, hypothalamus and midbrain (P < 0.005). Unpleasant was distinguished from neutral or pleasant emotion by activation of the bilateral occipito-temporal cortex and cerebellum, and left parahippocampal gyrus, hippocampus and amygdala (P < 0.005). Pleasant was also distinguished from neutral but not unpleasant emotion by activation of the head of the left caudate nucleus (P < 0.005). These findings are consistent with those from other recent PET studies of human emotion and demonstrate that there are both common and unique components of the neural networks mediating pleasant and unpleasant emotion in healthy women.

0 comments Cited 137 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Agreement of Self-Reported and Genital Measures of Sexual Arousal in Men and Women: A Meta-Analysis

Meredith Chivers, Michael C Seto, Martin L. Lalumière … (2010)

The assessment of sexual arousal in men and women informs theoretical studies of human sexuality and provides a method to assess and evaluate the treatment of sexual dysfunctions and paraphilias. Understanding measures of arousal is, therefore, paramount to further theoretical and practical advances in the study of human sexuality. In this meta-analysis, we review research to quantify the extent of agreement between self-reported and genital measures of sexual arousal, to determine if there is a gender difference in this agreement, and to identify theoretical and methodological moderators of subjective-genital agreement. We identified 132 peer- or academically-reviewed laboratory studies published between 1969 and 2007 reporting a correlation between self-reported and genital measures of sexual arousal, with total sample sizes of 2,505 women and 1,918 men. There was a statistically significant gender difference in the agreement between self-reported and genital measures, with men (r = .66) showing a greater degree of agreement than women (r = .26). Two methodological moderators of the gender difference in subjective-genital agreement were identified: stimulus variability and timing of the assessment of self-reported sexual arousal. The results have implications for assessment of sexual arousal, the nature of gender differences in sexual arousal, and models of sexual response.

0 comments Cited 136 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Neuroanatomical correlates of happiness, sadness, and disgust.

G Ahern, Anthony C. Davidson, Gregory G Schwartz … (1997)

Happiness, sadness, and disgust are three emotions that differ in their valence (positive or negative) and associated action tendencies (approach or withdrawal). This study was designed to investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of these discrete emotions. Twelve healthy female subjects were studied. Positron emission tomography and [15O]H2O were used to measure regional brain activity. There were 12 conditions per subject: happiness, sadness, and disgust and three control conditions, each induced by film and recall. Emotion and control tasks were alternated throughout. Condition order was pseudo-randomized and counterbalanced across subjects. Analyses focused on brain activity patterns for each emotion when combining film and recall data. Happiness, sadness, and disgust were each associated with increases in activity in the thalamus and medial prefrontal cortex (Brodmann's area 9). These three emotions were also associated with activation of anterior and posterior temporal structures, primarily when induced by film. Recalled sadness was associated with increased activation in the anterior insula. Happiness was distinguished from sadness by greater activity in the vicinity of ventral mesial frontal cortex. While this study should be considered preliminary, it identifies regions of the brain that participate in happiness, sadness, and disgust, regions that distinguish between positive and negative emotions, and regions that depend on both the elicitor and valence of emotion or their interaction.

0 comments Cited 123 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Contributors

Ji-Woo Seok: suk6124@naver.com

Jin-Hun Sohn: +82-42-821-7404 , jhsohn@cnu.ac.kr

Chaejoon Cheong: +82-43-240-5061 , cheong@kbsi.re.kr , cheong@ust.ac.kr

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Physiol Anthropol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Physiol Anthropol

Title: Journal of Physiological Anthropology

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Print): 1880-6791

ISSN (Electronic): 1880-6805

Publication date (Electronic): 8 March 2016

Publication date PMC-release: 8 March 2016

Publication date Collection: 2015

Volume: 35

Electronic Location Identifier: 8

Affiliations

[ ]Department of Psychology, Brain Research Institute, Chungnam National University, Koong-dong 220, Yusung-gu, Daejeon, Korea

[ ]Bioimaging Research Team, Division of Bioconvergence Analysis, Korea Basic Science Institute, eongudanji-ro 162, Ochang, Cheongju, Korea

Article

Publisher ID: 89

DOI: 10.1186/s40101-016-0089-3

PMC ID: 4782579

PubMed ID: 26951096

SO-VID: 9c0b5b11-5cb4-4280-b505-a19743e29571

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 24 August 2015

Date accepted : 26 February 2016

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Anthropology

Keywords: sexual arousal,hemodynamic response,event-related paradigm,globus pallidus,putamen

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Anthropology

Keywords: sexual arousal, hemodynamic response, event-related paradigm, globus pallidus, putamen

Neural substrates of sexual arousal in heterosexual males: event-related fMRI investigation

Read this article at

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Related collections

Primate Tool Use

Most cited references 36

Neuroanatomical correlates of pleasant and unpleasant emotion.

Agreement of Self-Reported and Genital Measures of Sexual Arousal in Men and Women: A Meta-Analysis

Neuroanatomical correlates of happiness, sadness, and disgust.

Author and article information

Contributors

Journal

Affiliations

Article

History

Categories

Custom metadata

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 76

Cited by 8

Most referenced authors 498