Thermography as a Physiological Measure of Sexual Arousal in Both Men and Women

Abstract

Introduction Current physiological measures of sexual arousal are intrusive, hard to compare between genders, and quantitatively problematic. Aim To investigate thermal imaging technology as a means of solving these problems. Methods Twenty-eight healthy men and 30 healthy women viewed a neutral film clip, after which they were randomly assigned to view one of three other video conditions: (i) neutral (N=19); (ii) humor (N=19); and (iii) sexually explicit (N=20). Main Outcome Measures Genital and thigh temperatures were continuously recorded using a TSA ImagIR camera. Subjective measures of sexual arousal, humor, and relaxation were assessed using Likert-style questions prior to showing the baseline video and following each film. Results Statistical (Tukey HSD) post-hoc comparisons (P <0.05) demonstrated that both men and women viewing the sexually arousing video had significantly greater genital temperature (mean=33.89°C, SD=1.00) than those in the humor (mean=32.09°C, SD=0.93) or neutral (mean=32.13°C, SD=1.24) conditions. Men and women in the erotic condition did not differ from each other in time to peak genital temperature (men mean=664.6 seconds, SD=164.99; women mean=743 seconds, SD=137.87). Furthermore, genital temperature was significantly and highly correlated with subjective ratings of sexual arousal (range r =0.51–0.68, P <0.001). There were no significant differences in thigh temperature between groups. Conclusion Thermal imaging is a promising technology for the assessment of physiological sexual arousal in both men and women.

The DSM Diagnostic Criteria for Female Sexual Arousal Disorder

“…One major criticism has been the invasive methodology required for their placement on the genitals by the investigator. In two recent studies (Kukkonen, Binik, Amsel, & Carrier, 2007), genital temperature (assessed using thermal imaging) was significantly correlated with subjective ratings of sexual arousal in women. However, there are practical difficulties (e.g., cost, intrusiveness) with this measure.…”

The engineering analysis of bioheat equation and penile hemodynamic relationships in the diagnosis of erectile dysfunction: part I—theoretical study and mathematical modeling

“…This intrusiveness would affect the actual experience of arousal in a variety of ways for different participants. 16 Quantitative difficulties in interpreting the data between subjects from existing measures also arise due to lack of an absolute measurement scale. For penile plethysmography and rigiscan monitoring, effort to correlate quantitatively the output measures with clinical criterion of penile rigidity gave mixed results, 15 thus difficult to use contact measures to establish diagnostic criteria, which require between-subject comparability and standardization for normal anatomical variation (both interior and exterior) including size and length in particular.…”

Attitude and behavior towards a scientific exhibition on the Fusion Energy: A pilot study of thermographic analysis in Psychosocial Research

“…This objective follows some studies in previous literature, beginning with the chemical clock hypothesis that implies an occasional link between body temperature and the perception of duration [1], through to recent contributions linking infrared thermographic measurements, mental workload and human performance [2], the human learning process [3] and driving performance [4]. This methodological and technological approach can be very useful, as shown in biomedical sciences when developing, for example, sexual arousal diagnoses [5]. Viability for this type of analysis is highly related to thermal ubiquity (similar to the case with acoustic noise ubiquity), notwithstanding the complex relationships at the physiological level (physical and psychological activity with body surface temperature regulation); it is further tied to the benefits inherent to the availability of a non-invasive tool (most important for capturing human dynamics in an environmentally friendly way).…”

“…From a biomedical approach, Kukkonen et al [5] introduce thermography as a non-intrusive technique to relate sexual arousal in men and women. They made the hypothesis that thermal measurements differ for different induced sexual arousal conditions and neutral, positive or negative mood conditions.…”