title: Neural correlates of subliminally presented visual sexual stimuli.
abstract: In the context of forensic psychiatry, it is crucial that diagnoses of deviant sexual interests are resistant to manipulation. In a first attempt to promote the development of such tools, the current fMRI study focusses on the examination of hemodynamic responses to preferred, in contrast to non-preferred, sexual stimuli with and without explicit sexual features in 24 healthy heterosexual subjects. The subliminal stimulus presentation of sexual stimuli could be a new approach to reduce vulnerability to manipulation. Meaningful images and scrambled images were applied as masks. Recognition performance was low, but interestingly, sexual preference and explicitness modulated stimulus visibility, suggesting interactions between networks of sexual arousal and consciousness. With scrambled masks, higher activations for sexually preferred images and for explicit images were found in areas associated with sexual arousal (Stoleru, Fonteille, Cornelis, Joyal, & Moulier, 2012). We conclude that masked sexual stimuli can evoke activations in areas associated with supraliminal induced sexual arousal.
authors.affiliation: Asklepios Forensic Psychiatric Hospital of Göttingen, Rosdorfer Weg 70, 37081 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wernicke
authors.affiliation: Asklepios Forensic Psychiatric Hospital of Göttingen, Rosdorfer Weg 70, 37081 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hofter
authors.affiliation: Department for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Rosdorfer Weg 70, 37081 Göttingen, Germany. Electronic address: Kirsten.Jordan@medizin.uni-goettingen.de.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.affiliation: Department for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Rosdorfer Weg 70, 37081 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fromberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Medical Center, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dechent
authors.affiliation: Asklepios Forensic Psychiatric Hospital of Göttingen, Rosdorfer Weg 70, 37081 Göttingen, Germany; Department for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Rosdorfer Weg 70, 37081 Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D019529:Sexuality / Q000502:physiology*; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anterior cingulate cortex; Basal ganglia; Consciousness; Inferior frontal gyrus; Sexual arousal; Sexual orientation; Subliminal stimulation; fMRI