title: The voices of seduction: cross-gender effects in processing of erotic prosody.
abstract: Gender specific differences in cognitive functions have been widely discussed. Considering social cognition such as emotion perception conveyed by non-verbal cues, generally a female advantage is assumed. In the present study, however, we revealed a cross-gender interaction with increasing responses to the voice of opposite sex in male and female subjects. This effect was confined to erotic tone of speech in behavioural data and haemodynamic responses within voice sensitive brain areas (right middle superior temporal gyrus). The observed response pattern, thus, indicates a particular sensitivity to emotional voices that have a high behavioural relevance for the listener.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychiatry, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ethofer
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wiethoff
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anders
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kreifelts
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Grodd
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wildgruber
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004882:Erotica; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014833:Voice Quality