Assessment of brain metabolites change during visual sexual stimulation in healthy women using functional MR spectroscopy.
BACKGROUND
Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies demonstrated the key brain areas associated with visual sexual arousal. However, the changes in brain metabolites involved in sexual stimuli have not been reported.


OBJECTIVE
This study utilized functional MR spectroscopy (fMRS) to evaluate the changes in brain metabolites associated with sexual arousal induced by stimulation with erotic video clips in healthy women.


METHODS
Twenty-three healthy, right-handed women (38.4 ± 10.0 years) participated in (1) H-fMRS and fMRI studies. T1 and T2 MR images were used for voxel localization of the anterior cingulate gyrus, which is one of the most important key centers associated with sexual arousal.


METHODS
The changes of brain metabolites were measured using (1) H-fMRS during time-course activation: "before," "during," and "after" visual sexual stimulation. The time-course variation of the brain metabolites was analyzed by the repeated-measures analysis of variance.


RESULTS
The CVmean of all the metabolites had <30% (range, 9-29%). The ICCs of α-glutamine-glutamate (Glx), choline (Cho), β·γ-Glx, N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and lactate (Lac) all exceeded 0.6. However, myo-inositol (mI) and lipid (Lip) were <0.6. The concentration of brain metabolites including α-Glx, β·γ-Glx, Cho, and Lac comparatively increased significantly during visual sexual stimulation.


CONCLUSIONS
(1) H-fMRS, for the first time, was applied to assess the brain metabolic changes during visually-evoked sexual arousal. The fMRS outcomes in relation to functional MRI data will be useful to understand the neural mechanism associated with sexual arousal.
Research Institute of Medical Imaging, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Tae-Hoon
TH
Kim
Heoung-Keun
HK
Kang
Gwang-Woo
GW
Jeong
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism; D003401:Creatine / Q000378:metabolism; D004882:Erotica; D005260:Female; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D005973:Glutamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007294:Inositol / Q000378:metabolism; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D007989:Libido; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
D005973:Glutamine; D001224:Aspartic Acid; D019344:Lactic Acid; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D007294:Inositol; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D003401:Creatine; D002794:Choline