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.     

Habituation of female sexual arousal to slides and film

The habituation of genital and subjective sexual arousal in women was assessed. In a first experiment 32 women were randomly assigned to either a constant stimulus condition in which subjects were exposed to the same erotic slide on repeated trials within one session, or to a varied stimuli condition in which subjects were exposed to various erotic slides. A second experiment assessed habituation of sexual responses of 42 women to erotic film excerpts. In both experiments repeated erotic stimulation was followed by a novel erotic stimulus to study the effect of novel simulation to a sequence of uniform stimulation. In the first experiment a floor effect was found in response to the first three trials that prevented a valid interpretation of responding on subsequent trials. We conclude that slides yield too little sexual arousal in female subjects. In the second experiment only a slight decline in genital responding was observed. Women sustained considerable levels of genital arousal even after 21 trials of uniform stimulation. Facial EMG was used as a physiological marker of emotional experience. Zygomatic activity decreased over trials, suggesting decreasing positive affect as a result of uniform stimulation. Results are discussed in the context of selective attention, characteristics of the habituation stimulus, and novelty.This research was supported in part by Grant R 56-385 and SIR 12-1133 from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).     

The effect of beta-adrenergic blockade after encoding on memory of an emotional event

RATIONALE: The efficacy of methadone for treating heroin dependence derives, in part, from suppression of opiate withdrawal and attenuation of the effects of heroin. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this double-blind, within-subject, inpatient study was to determine whether larger doses of methadone, which are more effective in the treatment of opioid dependence, produce greater or longer-lasting blockade of the effects of heroin in addition to adequate withdrawal suppression. METHODS: Participants were maintained on 30, 60, and 120 mg methadone (ascending order) for approximately 3 weeks at each dose. During each maintenance period, heroin challenges were administered at 4, 28, and 52 h after the last methadone dose. Opioid agonist effects and opioid withdrawal symptoms were assessed prior to heroin challenge. Challenge sessions consisted of three doses of heroin (0, 10, and 20 mg/70 kg; ascending order) 45 min apart. RESULTS: All three methadone maintenance doses produced similar agonist effects. Participants tested 4 h after receiving 120 mg methadone showed complete suppression of withdrawal symptoms and full attenuation of the effects of heroin. Thirty and 60 mg methadone suppressed withdrawal for up to 52 h, but failed to block completely the effects of heroin. The effects of heroin increased slightly at longer post-methadone intervals. CONCLUSIONS: Heroin use may persist during methadone treatment because low to moderate doses of methadone suppress withdrawal, but fail to eliminate the effects of heroin. These results provide a mechanism for the clinical observation that higher methadone doses are more effective at reducing heroin use.     

Focusing "hot" or focusing "cool": attentional mechanisms in sexual arousal in men and women

IntroductionKnowledge about the regulation of sexual emotion may add to the understanding of sexual problems such as diminished sexual desire and hypersexuality.AimTo investigate the regulation of sexual arousal by means of attentional focus in healthy sexually functional men and women.MethodUsing a habituation design with attentional strategies, it was investigated whether a focus on hot, emotional information of sexual stimuli would sustain or amplify sexual responses, whereas a focus on cool, cognitive information would weaken sexual responses.Main Outcome MeasuresGenital response (in women measured by vaginal photoplethysmography assessing vaginal pulse amplitude, and in men measured by mechanical penile strain gauge assessing penile circumference) and subjective report of sexual arousal and absorption.ResultsAttenuation of sexual feelings by attentional focus was observed, with stronger sexual feelings under the hot focus condition than under the cool focus condition. Also, sexual feelings diminished during repeated erotic stimulation, and increased with the introduction of novel stimulation, indicating habituation and novelty effects. Contrary to the expectations, the hot attentional focus did not preclude habituation of sexual arousal.ConclusionsAttentional focus has substantial regulatory effects on subjective sexual arousal. Taking a participant and emotion‐oriented focus rather than a spectator and stimulus‐oriented focus while viewing erotic stimuli, enhances feelings of sexual arousal. Implications for the treatment of hypoactive sexual desire, sexual arousal disorder, and hypersexuality are discussed, as well as future directions for studying regulation of sexual emotion. Both S, Laan E, and Everaerd W. Focusing “hot” or focusing “cool”: Attentional mechanisms in sexual arousal in men and women.     

Normal sexual dimorphism in the human basal ganglia

Male and female brains differ in both structure and function. Investigating this sexual dimorphism in healthy subjects is an important first step to ultimately gain insight into sex-specific differences in behavior and risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. The basal ganglia are among the main regions containing sex steroid receptors in the brain and play a central role in cognitive (dys)functioning. However, little is known about sexual dimorphism of different basal ganglia nuclei. The aim of the present study was to investigate sex-specific differences in basal ganglia morphology using MRI. We applied automatic volumetry on anatomical MRI data of two large cohorts of healthy young adults (n = 463 and n = 541) and assessed the volume of four major nuclei of the basal ganglia: caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, nucleus accumbens, and putamen, while controlling for total gray matter volume, total white matter volume, and age of the participant. No significant sex differences were found for caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens, but males showed significantly larger volumes for globus pallidus and putamen, as confirmed in both cohorts. These results show that sexual dimorphism is neither a general effect in the basal ganglia nor confined to just one specific nucleus, and will aid the interpretation of differences in basal ganglia (dys)function between males and females.     

Interindividual differences in stress sensitivity: basal and stress-induced cortisol levels differentially predict neural vigilance processing under stress

Stress exposure is known to precipitate psychological disorders. However, large differences exist in how individuals respond to stressful situations. A major marker for stress sensitivity is hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)-axis function. Here, we studied how interindividual variance in both basal cortisol levels and stress-induced cortisol responses predicts differences in neural vigilance processing during stress exposure. Implementing a randomized, counterbalanced, crossover design, 120 healthy male participants were exposed to a stress-induction and control procedure, followed by an emotional perception task (viewing fearful and happy faces) during fMRI scanning. Stress sensitivity was assessed using physiological (salivary cortisol levels) and psychological measures (trait questionnaires). High stress-induced cortisol responses were associated with increased stress sensitivity as assessed by psychological questionnaires, a stronger stress-induced increase in medial temporal activity and greater differential amygdala responses to fearful as opposed to happy faces under control conditions. In contrast, high basal cortisol levels were related to relative stress resilience as reflected by higher extraversion scores, a lower stress-induced increase in amygdala activity and enhanced differential processing of fearful compared with happy faces under stress. These findings seem to reflect a critical role for HPA-axis signaling in stress coping; higher basal levels indicate stress resilience, whereas higher cortisol responsivity to stress might facilitate recovery in those individuals prone to react sensitively to stress.     

Voluntary Control Over Pelvic Floor Muscles in Women With and Without Vaginistic Reactions

The ability to voluntarily contract and relax the pelvic floor muscles may differentiate between women with and without vaginistic reactions. This was investigated using intravaginal surface electromyographic (EMG) recordings of the pelvic floor muscles and EMG measurements of the surrounding muscle groups, during muscle exercises. Sixty-seven physician- or self-referred women with vaginismus and 43 control subjects participated. They performed six short flick contractions and three 10-second holding contractions. No difference in baseline was found between groups, indicating a comparable level of relaxation. There was no difference between groups in the performance of the exercises. As the women with vaginistic reactions do not have less voluntary control, treatment should not be based solely on an increase in control.     

Stress-induced breathlessness in asthma

BACKGROUND: A majority of patients with asthma believe that psychological factors (particularly stress) can induce asthma attacks, but empirical support for actual stress-induced airways obstruction is controversial. This study tested the hypothesis that stress induces breathlessness and not airways obstruction. METHODS: Stress was induced by a frustrating computer task in 30 adolescents with asthma and 20 normal controls, aged 14-19 years. Stress measures were self-reported emotions, heart rate, blood pressure. Respiratory measures were respiratory rate (RR), end tidal CO2, deep inspirations and sighs. Asthma measures were lung function, wheeze, cough, breathlessness. RESULTS: All measures confirmed high levels of negative emotions and stress. None of the participants developed airways obstruction; they had no reduction in lung function, wheeze was absent and cough negligible. However, breathlessness increased in all participants with asthma and excessively in many. The mean breathlessness was higher than during induction of actual airways obstruction with provocative agents in previous studies. End tidal CO2 showed that breathlessness could not be explained by hypocapnia. CONCLUSION: Stress can be sufficient to induce breathlessness in patients with asthma.     

Perceptions of asthma by adolescents at home

OBJECTIVES: To test symptom perception in asthma under natural circumstances and to establish relationships between changes in airway obstruction as indicated by wheeze, dyspnea, general sensations, and emotional state. DESIGN: Continuous in vivo monitoring. METHOD: Symptom perception was tested in 30 adolescents with severe, unstable asthma. They were continuously monitored in their homes for 72 h. Symptom perception was defined as the relation between self-reported dyspnea and airway obstruction as evident from audible wheeze. Tracheal sounds were continuously recorded with wireless telemetry for wheeze assessment. Dyspnea was assessed four times per day on a Likert-type 10-point scale, as well as four times randomly after pager remote command. The subjects kept records of use of medication, daily activities, general symptoms, and mood state in a diary. RESULTS: There were nine subjects with one or two wheeze episodes, another three subjects with three or four episodes, and one subject with almost continuous wheeze. The presence of wheeze in general related significantly to a rise (from individual baseline) in dyspnea of > 2.5 scale points. Acute wheeze was the best predictor of a rise in dyspnea, but prolonged wheeze correlated significantly with negative mood and general symptoms. CONCLUSION: Patients with prolonged airway obstruction perceived symptoms less well and were more vulnerable to negative effects of asthma than patients with acute onset airway obstruction.     

Noradrenaline mediates amygdala activation in men and women during encoding of emotional material

The amygdala is a pivotal structure in humans for encoding of emotional information, as shown by recent imaging studies. It is unknown which neurotransmitters are specifically involved in the human amygdala, although in animal studies noradrenaline was shown to be essential. In our study, participants received the betablocker propranolol (which blocks the noradrenergic response) or placebo when watching neutral to highly negative arousing pictures. Amygdala activation, monitored with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), increased with emotional intensity of the pictures under placebo condition. Betablockade selectively decreased amygdala activation for emotional pictures of the second highest category, but not for the highest or lower (neutral) category pictures. Two findings add to the existing knowledge in this area. First, the activation pattern in the amygdala under placebo condition shows a nonlinearity related to the emotional categories of the pictures. Second, propranolol disturbs this activation pattern in the amygdala. Explorations with respect to gender show a similar effect of betablockade on amygdala activation in both men and women, but a difference in its effect on long-term memory for emotional pictures. This study supports the hypothesis that the neurotransmitter noradrenaline also mediates amygdala activity in humans when processing emotional stimuli and that betablockers can disrupt the normal activation pattern in the amygdala.