Neural correlates of gender differences in distractibility by sexual stimuli
| Autor: | Jana Strahler, Onno Kruse, Rudolf Stark, Tim Klucken, Sina Wehrum-Osinsky |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Elementary cognitive task Cognitive Neuroscience Sexual arousal media_common.quotation_subject Sexual Behavior Nucleus accumbens Gyrus Cinguli 050105 experimental psychology Nucleus Accumbens Developmental psychology 03 medical and health sciences Young Adult 0302 clinical medicine Sex Factors Reward medicine Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Attention Anterior cingulate cortex media_common Neural correlates of consciousness Brain Mapping Motivation Sex Characteristics medicine.diagnostic_test Addiction 05 social sciences Cognition Magnetic Resonance Imaging medicine.anatomical_structure Neurology Pattern Recognition Visual Female Caudate Nucleus Psychology Functional magnetic resonance imaging 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| Zdroj: | NeuroImage. 176 |
| ISSN: | 1095-9572 |
| Popis: | Attentional interference control is a prominent feature of human cognition. To what extent sexual stimuli attract attention and interfere with cognitive tasks has still little been studied. Our study aimed to identify associations between attentional interference, sexual arousal, trait sexual motivation, and neural activity to sexual distractors while accounting for gender differences. Therefore, the present study examined the neural correlates of attentional interference by arousing sexual distractors using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Fifty women and 47 men underwent fMRI while indicating the orientation of two lines (equal or unequal) next to an explicit sexual (as compared to a neutral) picture. Results confirmed prolonged response times when a sexual image was shown. There was neither a difference between genders nor an effect of sexual arousal ratings or trait sexual motivation on distractibility. Neural activity specific to sexual images was found in brain regions implicated in motivation and reward processing. Men as compared to women showed stronger responses in the nucleus caudatus, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the nucleus accumbens. Trait sexual motivation was selectively correlated with nucleus caudatus activity. Taken together, findings support the notion that even when not in the focus, sexual images activate the brains' reward circuitry. Men's higher sensitivity to the rewarding value of sexual cues may be critical for their higher risk of addictive/compulsive sexual behaviors. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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