Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:34:37.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Central role of somatosensory processes in sexual arousal as identified by neuroimaging techniques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2007

Harold Mouras
Affiliation:
Socioaffective Development Team, Psychology and Educational Sciences Faculty, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. [email protected]://www.unige.ch/fapse/PSY/persons/vief/

Abstract

Research on the neural correlates of sexual arousal is a growing field of research in affective neuroscience. A new approach studying the correlation between the hemodynamic cerebral response and autonomic genital response has enabled distinct brain areas to be identified according to their role in inducing penile erection, on the one hand, and in representing penile sensation, on the other.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnow, B. A., Desmond, J. E., Banner, L. L., Glover, G. H., Solomon, A., Polan, M. L., Lue, T. F. & Atlas, S. W. (2002) Brain activation and sexual arousal in healthy, heterosexual males. Brain 125(Pt 5):1014–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Augustine, J. R. (1996) Circuitry and functional aspects of the insular lobe in primates including humans. Brain Research: Brain Research Reviews 22(3):229–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bradley, W. E., Farrell, D. F. & Ojemann, G. A. (1998) Human cerebrocortical potentials evoked by stimulation of the dorsal nerve of the penis. Somatosensory and Motor Research 15(2):118–27.Google Scholar
Ferretti, A., Caulo, M., Del Gratta, C., Di Matteo, R., Merla, A., Montorsi, F., Pizzella, V., Pompa, P., Rigatti, P., Rossini, P. M., Salonia, A., Tartaro, A. & Romani, G. L. (2005) Dynamics of male sexual arousal: Distinct components of brain activation revealed by fMRI. NeuroImage 26(4):1086–96.Google Scholar
Georgiadis, J. R. & Holstege, G. (2005) Human brain activation during sexual stimulation of the penis. Journal of Comparative Neurology 493(1):3338.Google Scholar
Kell, C. A., von Kriegstein, K., Rosler, A., Kleinschmidt, A. & Laufs, H. (2005) The sensory cortical representation of the human penis: Revisiting somatotopy in the male homunculus. Journal of Neuroscience 25(25):5984–87.Google Scholar
Kuban, M., Barbaree, H. E. & Blanchard, R. (1999) A comparison of volume and circumference phallometry: Response magnitude and method agreement. Archives of Sexual Behavior 28(4):345–59.Google Scholar
Moulier, V., Mouras, H., Pelegrini-Issac, M., Glutron, D., Rouxel, R., Grandjean, B., Bittoun, J. & Stoleru, S. (2006) Neuroanatomical correlates of penile erection evoked by photographic stimuli in human males. NeuroImage 33(2):689–99.Google Scholar
Mouras, H. & Stoleru, S. (2007) Functional neuroanatomy of sexual arousal. In: Male sexual dysfunction: Pathophysiology and treatment, ed. Kandeel, F., Lue, T., Pryor, J. & Swerdloff, R.. Informa Healthcare.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, S. M., Gelb, A., Girvin, J. P. & Hachinski, V. C. (1992) Cardiovascular effects of human insular cortex stimulation. Neurology 42(9):1727–32.Google Scholar
Penfield, W. & Rasmussen, T. (1950). Sensorimotor representation of the body: The cerebral cortex of man – A clinical study of localization of function. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pfaus, J. G. (1999) Neurobiology of sexual behavior. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 9(6):751–58.Google Scholar
Redoute, J., Stoleru, S., Gregoire, M. C., Costes, N., Cinotti, L., Lavenne, F., Le Bars, D., Forest, M. G. & Pujol, J. F. (2000) Brain processing of visual sexual stimuli in human males. Human Brain Mapping 11(3):162–77.3.0.CO;2-A>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stoleru, S. & Mouras, H. (in press) Brain functional imaging studies of sexual desire and arousal in human males. In: The psychophysiology of sex, ed. Janssen, E., Indiana University Press.Google Scholar