(176) Unconscious Attention to Sexual Stimuli: An Electroencephalography Study Regarding the Role of Neuroticism and Sexual Excitation/Inhibition
| Autor: | S Aguiar, J Carvalho, M Carrito, I Santos |
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| Rok vydání: | 2023 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of Sexual Medicine. 20 |
| ISSN: | 1743-6109 1743-6095 |
| Popis: | Introduction Past research has shown that neuroticism is a higher-order vulnerability factor in developing and maintaining emotional disorders and is related to an increased risk of sexual dysfunction. In a recent study, neuroticism was found to impact the automatic attention towards sexual stimuli, but the influence of psychosexual dimensions on such cognitive processes is not fully established. Objective Our aim was to study the mediating role of sexual inhibition/excitation propensity in the relationship between neuroticism and automatic attention to sexual stimuli and also to identify the neuroelectric correlates of this process. Methods We studied 58 individuals (Mage = 23.63; SD = 0.97), who presented either high or low neuroticism levels in the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R). Participants also completed the Sexual Inhibition/Excitation Scales (SIS/SES) and event-related potentials (ERP) P1, P2 and N2 were recorded during a modified oddball paradigm containing romantic and sexually explicit pictures. Using parallel mediation analyses, we simultaneously tested the mediating role of sexual inhibition/excitation in the relationship between neuroticism and each ERP of interest. Results Findings revealed an indirect effect of neuroticism on automatic attention, via SIS1, regardless of the type of stimuli. Such indirect effect was only significant for component N2, with increased amplitudes and earlier latencies in participants with high neuroticism. Effect sizes ranged from medium to large. Conclusions These results can be interpreted as a sign of an enhanced emotional response elicited by the exposure to the sexual content. Results also showed that neuroticism predicts sexual inhibition due to threat of performance failure (SIS1), but does not have an effect on sexual excitation (SES) or sexual inhibition due to threat of performance consequences (SIS2). Our findings suggest that automatic attentional mechanisms are closely related to personality and sexual-related domains, and support the relevance of studying non-conscious cognitive phenomena in the context of human sexual behaviour. Disclosure No |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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