Gender-specific genital and subjective sexual arousal to prepotent sexual features in heterosexual women and men

A neural circuit encoding sexual preference in humans

“…Given findings showing greater fluidity in heterosexual women’s behavioral responses to sex-related stimuli than is evident in homosexual women, heterosexual men, or homosexual men (Chivers et al 2015; Dawson and Chivers, 2014), also group differences in the neural correlates of sexual preference might exist. However, there is also evidence for gender-specific genital and subjective responses in heterosexual women (Spape et al, 2014). A fair pool of experiments comparing such uniform groups during stimulation with their preferred sexual stimuli (contrasted with their non-preferred stimuli) would be needed to allow for authoritative conclusions on this matter.…”

A Hierarchical Model Might Cast Some Light on the Anomaly

“…The explanation might lie in the expression of the Chivers’ team that a “pre-potent” image of an erect penis is suggestive that penetration is imminent (Spape, Timmers, Yoon, Ponseti, & Chivers, 2014). By means of evolution, women might be prepared to form an automatic genital reaction to such a stimulus (System 1 control), where all the necessary information to trigger a response is contained within the image.…”

Devices and Methods to Measure Female Sexual Arousal

“…That is, heterosexual and lesbian women demonstrated greater patterns of brain activation to both male and female nude figures as compared with heterosexual and gay men, whose brain activation patterns corresponded with their preferred sexual stimulus. While still images of nude individuals can produce significant differences in brain activation and visual attention, their impact on genital response is mixed [38–40]. Although some studies have demonstrated no significant increases in VPP output to still erotic images [38,39], heterosexual female participants in a recent study had significant increases in vaginal pulse amplitude (VPA) to images of erect penises as compared with images of exposed vulvas and nonsexual images [40].…”

“…While still images of nude individuals can produce significant differences in brain activation and visual attention, their impact on genital response is mixed [38–40]. Although some studies have demonstrated no significant increases in VPP output to still erotic images [38,39], heterosexual female participants in a recent study had significant increases in vaginal pulse amplitude (VPA) to images of erect penises as compared with images of exposed vulvas and nonsexual images [40]. Overall, a series of sexual images may produce some genital response; however, a more engaging stimulus is typically used when the variable of interest requires higher sustained levels of physiological sexual arousal.…”