title: Topography of Human Erogenous Zones.
abstract: Touching is a powerful means for eliciting sexual arousal. Here, we establish the topographical organization of bodily regions triggering sexual arousal in humans. A total of 704 participants were shown images of same and opposite sex bodies and asked to color the bodily regions whose touching they or members of the opposite sex would experience as sexually arousing while masturbating or having sex with a partner. Resulting erogenous zone maps (EZMs) revealed that the whole body was sensitive to sexual touching, with erogenous hotspots consisting of genitals, breasts, and anus. The EZM area was larger while having sex with a partner versus while masturbating, and was also dependent on sexual desire and heterosexual and homosexual interest levels. We conclude that tactile stimulation of practically all bodily regions may trigger sexual arousal. Extension of the erogenous zones while having sex with a partner may reflect the role of touching in maintenance of reproductive pair bonds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, School of Science, Aalto University, 00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland. lauri.nummenmaa@aalto.fi.|Turku PET Centre and Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. lauri.nummenmaa@aalto.fi.
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nummenmaa
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, School of Science, Aalto University, 00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Juulia T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Suvilehto
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, School of Science, Aalto University, 00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Glerean
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Santtila
authors.affiliation: Human Information Processing Laboratory, School of Social Sciences and Humanities/Psychology, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
authors.forename: Jari K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hietanen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007989:Libido / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arousal; Bonding; Sexuality; Somatosensation; Touch