A Psychophysiological Exploration of Sexual Arousal Patterns in Females and Males

Fifty-nine female and 39 male undergraduates completed 3 sessions of a psychophysiological study on sexual arousal. Subjects were assigned to one of six experimental groups. Subjects within each group were exposed to a series of four audio-tapes, and were asked to fantasize before and after the tape series. Tapes varied in their erotic and romantic content, and two sex role dimensions were also varied across tapes. Dependent measures included scaled subjective reports, genital pulse amplitude and blood volume responses, heart rate, and finger pulse amplitude. Erotic contents were significantly more sexually arousing than nonerotic contents for both sexes. Romantic content did not significantly enhance the facilitation of sexual arousal. Nontraditional sex roles were significantly more arousing for females, with a similar nonsignificant trend for males. There were significant correlations between genital pulse amplitude and subjective reports of arousal; however, for females the genital blood volume measure showed less reliable agreement with subjective report. Genital pulse amplitude was the most reliable and precise indicator of arousal and accounted for the most variance across conditions. No significant changes occurred on the heart rate and finger pulse amplitude measures. Although subjects were able to become aroused by fantasy alone, listening to erotic tapes did not facilitate their ability to be sexually aroused during fantasy.     

Physiological and Subjective Sexual Arousal in Pre- and Postmenopausal Women and Postmenopausal Women Taking Replacement Therapy

Twenty premenopausal, 14 postmenopausal, and 14 postmenopausal women receiving replacement estrogen therapy were studied to determine whether differences in hormone status were associated with differences in physiological and subjective sexual responses. All subjects viewed a neutral, an erotic, and a second neutral videotape while photoplethysmographic vaginal pulse amplitude was continuously recorded. Self-report ratings of sexual arousal and affective response were collected. Serum levels of testosterone, estradiol, estrone, and luteinizing hormone were obtained. The three groups did not differ in either average or maximum vaginal pulse amplitude to the videotapes nor in latency of sexual response. The postmenopausal women not taking replacement estrogen reported significantly less vaginal lubrication in response to the erotic videotape than the higher estrogen premenopausal and replacement hormone groups. Estradiol level was significantly correlated with ratings of vaginal lubrication in response to the erotic videotape but not with vaginal pulse amplitude. Results thus suggest that estrogen is important in maintaining vaginal lubrication and the perception of sexual arousal but not in determining vaginal vasocongestion.     

Attentional Effects on Sexual Arousal

Lang's theory on emotions was applied to the sexual response: the cognitive processing of information on sexual responses (in contrast to information on sexual stimuli) was predicted to elicit the sexual response. Each of 48 men and 48 women imagined a sexual interaction, looked at a series of slides, and listened to an erotic story. Subjects were instructed to attend to images of sexual stimuli or to images of sexual stimuli plus responses. During imagery the genital response and the experience of sexual arousal were stronger when subjects focused on stimuli plus responses than when they focused on stimuli only. This effect occurred in both men and women. During slides and story a similar effect was found in men, but not in women. The genital response and the experience of sexual arousal were found to correlate more strongly when attentional focus was on stimuli plus responses instead of on stimuli only: in women, and, although marginally significant, also in men.     

Physiological Assessment of Sexual Arousal in Women

The purpose of this investigation was to validate the use of vaginal photoplethysmography along with six other physiological measures for the assessment of sexual arousal in women. Six women in counterbalanced order were presented control, dysphoric, and sexually arousing videotapes. Subjective ratings revealed that subjects experienced moderate levels of sexual and anxiety arousal during the videotapes, and comprehension quizzing at the end of the experiment showed that subjects attended to the content. Heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin conductance response failed to discriminate between any of the videotapes. In order from highest to lowest sensitivity, vaginal blood volume, skin conductance, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and forehead temperature showed significant increases during the erotic videotape. Though sensitive, skin conductance appeared to he unreliable. Areas for further research were identified.     

Abdominal Temperature Changes During Male Sexual Arousal

The present study explored the feasibility of using temperature measurement from a non-genital location to assess sexual arousal. Based upon analyses conducted with thermographic techniques, it was hypothesized that abdominal skin cooling would occur during sexual arousal. In 2 sessions, 6 male subjects were shown low, moderate, and high arousing erotic films. Simultaneous measures of abdominal temperature, penile circumference, and subjective arousal were taken. Results indicate that while decreases in skin temperature were seen during arousal, thermister data did not correlate well with tumescence or subjective arousal ratings. It would appear that thermography and temperature measurement might be most fruitfully employed to explore basic physiological processes involved in sexual arousal, since continuous temperature measures do not appear sensitive enough for use in typical sex research paradigms.     

Shock Threat and Sexual Arousal: The Role of Selective Attention, Thought Content, and Affective States

In an attempt to detail cognitive processes during anxiety and sexual arousal, 16 heterosexual males were presented with brief erotic audiotapes simultaneous with four levels of shock threat (no shock, half tolerance, tolerance, and twice tolerance threat). Subjects were instructed to pay close attention to the audiotapes, following which a sentence recognition task was administered to assess stimulus-focused attention. Additionally at these times, they were given a thought-listing task and completed a series of affect ratings. Tumescence and subjective arousal were monitored continuously during the erotic stimuli. Results revealed that tolerance shock threat decreased tumescence (p<.05). In contrast, recognition memory was greatest during tolerance shock threat and diminished during twice tolerance shock threat, which also produced increased reports of emotional stales. Issues regarding the relation between cognition and sexual arousal are discussed, including implications for understanding sexual dysfunction.     

Facial Electromyography: A Measure of Affective Processes During Sexual Arousal

Forty female volunteers participated in a study to investigate whether facial EMGs could be used as measures of affect during sexual arousal. Audiotaped narratives were used to induce the following affect-sexual states: 1) pleasant affect + sexual arousal, 2) unpleasant affect + sexual arousal, 3) pleasant affect + no sexual arousal, and 4) unpleasant affect + no sexual arousal. EMG activity was recorded bilaterally from the corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions. Corrugator muscle activity was significantly greater in response to the unpleasant stimulus conditions. This relationship held for both the non-sexual and sexual conditions, suggesting that corrugator muscle activity may provide a reliable index of negative affect during sexual arousal. Zygomatic activity was significantly greater during the sexual as compared to the non-sexual stimuli, but did not increase as a function of pleasant affect. Greater left than right corrugator muscle activity was observed in response to the sexual stimuli. Left muscle superiority was also noted for zygomatic muscle activity, in response to the sexual unpleasant stimulus. Issues related to the interpretation of lateralized muscle activity are discussed.     

Does the Menstrual Cycle Play a Role in Sexual Arousal?

Menstrual cycle effects on erotic arousability were tested in 13 women aged 20–28. Vaginal blood volume and pulse amplitude were measured with a light emitting diode photoplethysmograph, labial temperature was measured by a small thermistor, and subject self-report of arousal was estimated on a 7-point Likert scale in response to audio erotic tapes and fantasy over five different phases of the menstrual cycle. Pre-session levels of blood volume and labial temperature showed no important changes across the cycle, but pooled blood volume, pulsatile blood volume and labial temperature reliably demonstrated sexual arousal during tape and fantasy sessions. Repeated measures analyses of variance and covariance of physiological change scores from baseline and subjective ratings failed to demonstrate that significant changes in self-reports, vaginal blood volume, vaginal pulse amplitude, or labial temperature occurred as a function of menstrual cycle phase. This study provides objective physiological evidence that there appears to be no one phase in the menstrual cycle during which women are more sexually arousable to erotic stimuli as detected by these physiological measures.     

A Cognitive-Physiological Process Model of Sexual Arousal and Response

Three decades of research have focused on identifying cognitive and physiological processes in human emotion. The mechanisms by which these components interact to mediate sexual arousal are unknown, and scientific knowledge on women Is lacking. New findings have identified (a) key components of sexual response, (b) mechanisms by which cognitive and physiological processes form a feedback loop in the mediation of sexual arousal, and (c) a method to increase genital response and cognitive expectancy, via pairing general autonomic activation and physiological genital feedback. This approach interrupted the dysfunctional process and initiated a positive cognitive-physiological feedback loop of sexual arousal to levels comparable with sexually functional women within 3 min. This empirically derived process model identifies a cognitive-physiological pathway for sexual response, and a potential common pathway for emotion processing and an integrated behavioral medicine approach to women's health.     

Relationships Between Behavioral Arousal and Some Components of Autonomic Arousal

The present experiment examined 11 male adolescents for relationships between the autonomic measures of heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) and three rates of finger tapping, a) subject resting, b) DRL.5 sec, and c) FR5, as a measure of behavioral arousal. At each level of behavioral arousal, minimum, mean, and maximum HR were analyzed. Mean and maximum HR increased only at high arousal, while minimum HR increased with each increase in behavioral arousal. SC was higher during tapping than resting, but was uninfluenced by rate of tapping. The potential value of the maximum and minimum HR and SC measures as tools for inferring the role of parasympathetic versus sympathetic mechanisms in autonomic arousal was discussed. This paradigm provides a simple, nonaversive method for examining autonomic and behavioral arousal.     

Female Sexual Arousal and the Menstrual Cycle

Abstract

Self-reports of sexual arousal were significantly affected by conditions under which they were elicited. Such self-reports in women not taking oral contraceptives were congruent with a hormonal basis for such arousal only when the women were “unaware” that the study investigated sexual arousal as a function of the menstrual cycle. The “unaware” condition was operationalized by means of daily self-reports elicited from males and females for 11 weeks under the guise of a study of biological rhythms. A composite of one to three menstrual cycles for 26 women not taking oral contraceptives showed that sexual arousal during the luteal phase, when progesterone is relatively high, was significantly lower compared to peaks around ovulation, and premenstrual and late menstrual days (p<.02). For the “aware” condition, women were asked to remember moods for the premenstrual, menstruating and luteal phases of the very last cycle on which they had just finished giving “unaware” daily self-reports. A 2 × 3 analysis of variance (with “aware” versus “unaware” conditions and premenstrual, menstruating, and luteal phases of the last cycle as the two independent variables) yielded a significant interaction effect with F=6.5, df=2, 50, p<.003. In the “unaware” condition, sexual arousal was reported lowest during the luteal phase. The opposite pattern was reported in the “aware” condition. The results suggest that cyclical variability may not be simply due to women's misattribulions. However, “awareness” has an effect on self-report measures and may bias reports according to cultural stereotypes. Daily self-reports of sexual arousal for men were averaged over the duration of the study. This average was 3.16. The equivalent average for women not taking oral contraceptives was 2.35 and for women taking oral contraceptives was 2.62. Analysis of variance of these three means yielded a significant difference with F=4.49, df=2, 59, p<.02.     

Thermistor Measurement of Male Sexual Arousal

Penile erection is accompanied by genital vasocongestion which increases penile skin temperature. These changes should be measurable using thermistors attached to the penis. The present study compared the UUT51J1 Uni-Curve thermistor placed on the penis with the Barlow strain gauge in the assessment of sexual arousal in 8 heterosexual males. Sexual stimuli consisted of 3, 3-min exposures to heterosexually explicit black-and-white videotapes. The results indicated that the two measures were highly positively correlated with each other and with self-report. However, the strain gauge followed detumescence more closely than the thermistor and was more strongly correlated with subjective arousal. Also, the two probes differed as to when they reached peak response. The strain gauge typically reached its highest point prior to the end of the film, while the thermistor always peaked during the early post-film interval. The thermistor's slow transition from temperature increases to decreases during the initial moments of detumescence appeared to be its principal shortcoming as a measure of male sexual arousal.     

Male Sexual Arousal as a Function of the Content and the Vividness of Erotic Fantasy

Physiological and subjective arousal were measured across 5 sessions, each separated by a day or more, in which males attempted to induce erection through fantasy. Stable individual differences in the capacity to achieve voluntary enhancement of penile tumescence were found. The men who were most able to enhance erection were those who reported the greatest use of sexually arousing fantasy themes. In a second experiment, which employed structured rather than unstructured fantasy, sexual arousal was studied as a function of the content of fantasy and tbe vividness with which participants could form images (as assessed by Beits Q.M.I. Scale). Fantasy themes that had been independently rated as high in erotic value produced greater changes in penile circumference relative to baseline than themes of lower erotic value. Men with vivid imagery were more sexually aroused during fantasy than men with non-vivid imagery. The interaction between the content and vividness of fantasy was not significant. These results indicate that the extent to which men can induce erection through fantasy depends not only on the sexual themes that the men use during fantasy, but on the vividness of the images they form.     

Male Sexual Arousal and the Law of Initial Value

Penile circumference was measured for 24 men before and during exposure to erotic material of matched content presented in 5 modes: film, slides, spoken, written, and fantasy. Stimulation in each case involved 8, 2-min episodes graded in content from low to high heterosexual arousal value. Three indices were used to test for the Law of Initial Value (LIV). No consistent evidence was obtained that stimulation levels or change scores varied systematically with prestimulus baseline values. The data indicate that male sexual arousal can be investigated without the need to adjust change scores to take into account initial value, at least when guided relaxation has been used to stabilize basal rates.     

Sexual arousal of the female hamster

Elicitation of the lordosis response, using a manual stimulation technique, was facilitated by contact with an anaesthetized male hamster. Exposure to an intact anaesthetized male decreased latency to lordosis and increased lordosis duration. Exposure to a gonadectomized anaesthetized hamster significantly reduced the latency to lordosis, but did not affect lordosis duration.     

Groin Skin Temperature: Testing the Validity of a Relatively Unobtrusive Physiological Measure of Psychosexual Arousal

The validity of groin skin temperature as a relatively unobtrusive physiological measure of psychosexual arousal was tested for both males and females. Groin skin temperature and hemodynamic (penile circumference, vaginal blood volume, and vaginal pulse amplitude) changes induced by erotic and non-erotic film presentations were monitored in 10 male and 10 female volunteers. Significant positive correlations (p<.001) between the measures were obtained for 16 of 20 subjects. Implications of the findings for detecting low levels of psychosexual arousal are discussed.     

血清性激素水平与肝细胞癌转移关系的初步研究

应用放射免疫分析法（ＲＩＡ）对２８例原发性肝细胞癌（ＨＣＣ）患者血清雌二醇（Ｅ２）、垂体泌乳素（ＰＲＬ）、睾酮（Ｔ）水平进行了检测。结果表明，ＨＣＣ转移组血清Ｅ２、ＰＲＬ水平明显高于未转移组，Ｔ水平明显低于未转移组，结果具有显著性差异。结果提示：血清Ｅ２、ＰＲＬ、Ｔ的改变与ＨＣＣ的转移过程密切相关。     

Urinary Acid Phosphatase Secretion Under Different Arousal Conditions

Seventy-three undergraduate males were randomly assigned to five different conditions, sexual, anxiety, aggressive, and laughter arousals and a control group, as a test of the hypothesis that urinary acid phosphatase is a specific indicator of sexual arousal. Pre- and post-arousal urine samples were analyzed for the amount of urinary acid phosphatase (AP) present, and significant increases occurred only in the sexual arousal condition. Both general and specific elements of arousal as well as a possible link between sexual arousal and anxiety are discussed. These findings support earlier results of studies in this area.     

广州、香港两地大学生性观念调查—性态度、性知识、行为发生可能性及双重标准

目的本研究通过对香港和广州两地大学生的性态度、性知识和性双重标准的调查,找出两地大学生性观念上的地区差异。方法以问卷调查的方式,对85位香港大二学生及65位广州大二学生在性态度、性知识、相关行为发生可能性方面进行调查。结果调查发现,广州大学生在性态度上更开放,在相关性行为发生的可能性上更高。男性的性态度、性知识、相关性行为得分也高于女性。在性的双重标准方面,两地都存在双重标准,而广州大学生性的双重标准程度更高。结论开明的性教育对正确树立大学生性观念和消除性双重标准具有重要的意义