Assessment of Cerebrocortical Regions Associated with Sexual Arousal in Premenopausal and Menopausal Women by Using BOLD–Based Functional MRI

Abstract

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare the cerebral regions associated with sexual arousal between premenopausal and menopausal women by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (f MRI). Materials and Methods Ten premenopausal and 10 menopausal women underwent fMRI on a 1.5T MR scanner using the blood oxygen level dependent technique. To identify the activated brain regions associated with sexual response, brain activation was assessed during 1 minute of a nonerotic film, followed by 4 minutes of an erotic film. Results The overall activation ratios of the premenopausal women were greater than those of the menopausal women by approximately 8% on average. The limbic, temporal association areas, and parietal lobe showed greater enhancement of signal intensities in premenopausal women. However, signal enhancement in the genu of the corpus callosum and superior frontal gyrus was dominant in menopausal women. Conclusions The activated brain center associated with visually evoked sexual arousal showed qualitative and quantitative differences between premenopausal and menopausal women.

A comparative study of brain activation patterns associated with sexual arousal between males and females using 3.0-T functional magnetic resonance imaging

“…10,14 Prior to statistical analysis, images were realigned utilising sinc interpolation to match each functional volume to the reference volume, and were spatially normalised to the standard stereotactic space corresponding to the template from the Montreal Neurological Institute space, which is a template created from 152 brain datasets. Bilinear interpolation was applied for normalisation.…”

“…The males, in contrast with the females showed higher activity in the left thalamus, whereas the females showed higher activities in the right thalamus. Several fMRI studies 10,28 have demonstrated thalamus activation during sexual arousal in males and females. The thalamus can transmit input information of sense and consciousness to the cerebral cortices including the frontal, temporal and occipital lobes.…”

“…These results are partly similar to the brain areas commonly activated in women during exposure to sexual arousal stimuli. 10,11 The anterior cingulate gyrus of the internal components of the limbic system is related to the emotional processing of sexual arousal, and this area has been implicated in the induction and control of affective behaviour for sexual arousal. 30 Beauregard et al 8 reported that attempted inhibition of the sexual arousal generated by viewing the erotic stimuli was associated with activation of the anterior cingulate gyrus.…”

“…For the group analysis of male and female subjects, the following regions of interest (ROIs), which are involved in sexual arousal in males and females, [9][10][11][12][13] were created using Wake Forest University Pick Atlas (Department of Radiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA):…”

Neurourology & Female Urology

“…The authors do note that a positive mood and well being were the most important parameters controlling sexual activity in women. In view that there have been findings of difference in qualitative and quantitative difference in visually evoked sexual arousal between pre-menopausal and menopausal without bronchial asthma it would be interesting to see if this was mirrored in the population with bronchial asthma (1). In addition, in view that all the patients in this study were married, it would be of both scientific interest and great social commentary to see if a study cohort of unmarried women were more easily aroused than ones who were married when exposed to visual erotic stimuli and the areas of the brain affected (2).…”