title: Distinguishing specific sexual and general emotional effects in fMRI-subcortical and cortical arousal during erotic picture viewing.
abstract: Sexual activity involves excitement with high arousal and pleasure as typical features of emotions. Brain activations specifically related to erotic feelings and those related to general emotional processing are therefore hard to disentangle. Using fMRI in 21 healthy subjects (11 males and 10 females), we investigated regions that show activations specifically related to the viewing of sexually intense pictures while controlling for general emotional arousal (GEA) or pleasure. Activations in the ventral striatum and hypothalamus were found to be modulated by the stimulus' specific sexual intensity (SSI) while activations in the anterior cingulate cortex were associated with an interaction between sexual intensity and emotional valence. In contrast, activation in other regions like the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the mediodorsal thalamus and the amygdala was associated only with a general emotional component during sexual arousal. No differences were found in these effects when comparing females and males. Our findings demonstrate for the first time neural differentiation between emotional and sexual components in the neural network underlying sexual arousal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Magdeburg, Germany. martin.walter@med.ovgu.de
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bermpohl
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mouras
authors.forename: Kolja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schiltz
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tempelmann
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rotte
authors.forename: Hans Jochen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Heinze
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bogerts
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Northoff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D004882:Erotica; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*