Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Neuroimaging and Sexual Behavior: Identification of Regional and Functional Differences

  • Sexual Disorders (G Dwyer, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Psychiatry Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The neuroanatomical correlates of human sexual desire, arousal, and behavior have been characterized in recent years with functional brain imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). Here, we briefly review the results of functional neuroimaging studies in humans, whether healthy or suffering from sexual disorders, and the current models of regional and network activation in sexual arousal. Attention is paid, in particular, to findings from both regional and network studies in the past 3 years. We also identify yet unanswered and pressing questions of interest to areas of ongoing investigations for psychiatric, scientific, and forensic disciplines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance

  1. Fedoroff JP, Peyser C, Franz ML, Folstein SE. Sexual disorders in Huntington’s disease. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1994;6:147–53.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Phan KL, Wager T, Taylor SF, Liberzon I. Functional neuroanatomy of emotion: a meta-analysis of emotion activation studies in pet and fMRI. NeuroImage. 2002;16:331–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Georgiadis JR, Holstege G. Human brain activation during sexual stimulation of the penis. J Comp Neurol. 2005;493:33–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Huh J, Park K, Hwang IS, Jung SI, Kim HJ, Chung TW, et al. Brain activation areas of sexual arousal with olfactory stimulation in men: a preliminary study using functional MRI. J Sex Med. 2008;5:619–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Savic I, Berglund H, Gulyas B, Roland P. Smelling of odorous sex hormone-like compounds causes sex-differentiated hypothalamic activations in humans. Neuron. 2001;31:661–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ethofer T, Wiethoff S, Anders S, Kreifelts B, Grodd W, Wildgruber D. The voices of seduction: cross-gender effects in processing of erotic prosody. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2007;2:334–7.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Stoleru S, Fonteille V, Cornelis C, Joyal C, Moulier V. Functional neuroimaging studies of sexual arousal and orgasm in healthy men and women: a review and meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012;36:1481–509.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Mohnke S, Muller S, Amelung T, Kruger TH, Ponseti J, Schiffer B, et al. Brain alterations in paedophilia: a critical review. Prog Neurobiol. 2014;122:1–23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Redoute J, Stoleru S, Gregoire MC, Costes N, Cinotti L, Lavenne F, et al. Brain processing of visual sexual stimuli in human males. Hum Brain Mapp. 2000;11:162–77.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Stoleru S, Gregoire MC, Gerard D, Decety J, Lafarge E, Cinotti L, et al. Neuroanatomical correlates of visually evoked sexual arousal in human males. Arch Sex Behav. 1999;28:1–21.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Poeppl TB, Langguth B, Laird AR, Eickhoff SB. The functional neuroanatomy of male psychosexual and physiosexual arousal: a quantitative meta-analysis. Hum Brain Mapp. 2014;35:1404–21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Kuhn S, Gallinat J. A quantitative meta-analysis on cue-induced male sexual arousal. J Sex Med. 2011;8:2269–75.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Arnow BA, Desmond JE, Banner LL, Glover GH, Solomon A, Polan ML, et al. Brain activation and sexual arousal in healthy, heterosexual males. Brain : J Neurol. 2002;125:1014–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Ferretti A, Caulo M, Del Gratta C, Di Matteo R, Merla A, Montorsi F, et al. Dynamics of male sexual arousal: distinct components of brain activation revealed by fMRI. NeuroImage. 2005;26:1086–96.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Moulier V, Mouras H, Pelegrini-Issac M, Glutron D, Rouxel R, Grandjean B, et al. Neuroanatomical correlates of penile erection evoked by photographic stimuli in human males. NeuroImage. 2006;33:689–99.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Hanlon CA, Dowdle LT, Naselaris T, Canterberry M, Cortese BM. Visual cortex activation to drug cues: a meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging papers in addiction and substance abuse literature. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2014;143:206–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Sabatinelli D, Flaisch T, Bradley MM, Fitzsimmons JR, Lang PJ. Affective picture perception: gender differences in visual cortex? Neuroreport. 2004;15:1109–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Huynh HK, Beers C, Willemsen A, Lont E, Laan E, Dierckx R, et al. High-intensity erotic visual stimuli de-activate the primary visual cortex in women. J Sex Med. 2012;9:1579–87. In this study, PET scanning in women demonstrated extensive bilateral deactivation of the primary and secondary visual cortex in response to high-intensity (i.e. explicit) erotic film clips versus low-intensity erotic or neutral clips. The authors of that paper suggested their finding showed either a compensatory mechanism that facilitates increased blood supply to other brain regions involved in sexual processing or a decreased need to maintain precise visual verification of overt stimuli that are obviously sexually arousing. They further postulated emotional processing at the anterior affective system, comprising the temporal pole, amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex, modulates the activity at the visual cortex during exposure to high-intensity visual erotic stimuli.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Rolls ET. The orbitofrontal cortex and reward. Cereb Cortex. 2000;10:284–94.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Safron A, Barch B, Bailey JM, Gitelman DR, Parrish TB, Reber PJ. Neural correlates of sexual arousal in homosexual and heterosexual men. Behav Neurosci. 2007;121:237–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Aharon I, Etcoff N, Ariely D, Chabris CF, O’Connor E, Breiter HC. Beautiful faces have variable reward value: fMRI and behavioral evidence. Neuron. 2001;32:537–51.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. O’Doherty J, Critchley H, Deichmann R, Dolan RJ. Dissociating valence of outcome from behavioral control in human orbital and ventral prefrontal cortices. J Neurosci: Off J Soc Neurosci. 2003;23:7931–9.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Ishai A. Sex, beauty and the orbitofrontal cortex. Int J psychophysiol : Off J Int Organ Psychophysiol. 2007;63:181–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Kringelbach ML, Rolls ET. The functional neuroanatomy of the human orbitofrontal cortex: evidence from neuroimaging and neuropsychology. Prog Neurobiol. 2004;72:341–72.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Karama S, Lecours AR, Leroux JM, Bourgouin P, Beaudoin G, Joubert S, et al. Areas of brain activation in males and females during viewing of erotic film excerpts. Hum Brain Mapp. 2002;16:1–13.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Kim SW, Sohn DW, Cho YH, Yang WS, Lee KU, Juh R, et al. Brain activation by visual erotic stimuli in healthy middle aged males. Int J Impot Res. 2006;18:452–7.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Miyagawa Y, Tsujimura A, Fujita K, Matsuoka Y, Takahashi T, Takao T, et al. Differential brain processing of audiovisual sexual stimuli in men: comparative positron emission tomography study of the initiation and maintenance of penile erection during sexual arousal. NeuroImage. 2007;36:830–42.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Bocher M, Chisin R, Parag Y, Freedman N, Meir Weil Y, Lester H, et al. Cerebral activation associated with sexual arousal in response to a pornographic clip: a 15o-h2o pet study in heterosexual men. NeuroImage. 2001;14:105–17.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Stoleru S, Redoute J, Costes N, Lavenne F, Bars DL, Dechaud H, et al. Brain processing of visual sexual stimuli in men with hypoactive sexual desire disorder. Psychiatry Res. 2003;124:67–86.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Schiffer B, Peschel T, Paul T, Gizewski E, Forsting M, Leygraf N, et al. Structural brain abnormalities in the frontostriatal system and cerebellum in pedophilia. J Psychiatr Res. 2007;41:753–62.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Schiffer B, Paul T, Gizewski E, Forsting M, Leygraf N, Schedlowski M, et al. Functional brain correlates of heterosexual paedophilia. NeuroImage. 2008;41:80–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Cieslik EC, Zilles K, Caspers S, Roski C, Kellermann TS, Jakobs O, et al. Is there “one” DLPFC in cognitive action control? Evidence for heterogeneity from co-activation-based parcellation. Cereb Cortex. 2013;23:2677–89.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Leon-Carrion J, Martin-Rodriguez JF, Damas-Lopez J, Pourrezai K, Izzetoglu K, Barroso YMJM, et al. Does dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation return to baseline when sexual stimuli cease? The role of DLPFC in visual sexual stimulation. Neurosci Lett. 2007;416:55–60.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Walter M, Witzel J, Wiebking C, Gubka U, Rotte M, Schiltz K, et al. Pedophilia is linked to reduced activation in hypothalamus and lateral prefrontal cortex during visual erotic stimulation. Biol Psychiatry. 2007;62:698–701.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Kell CA, von Kriegstein K, Rosler A, Kleinschmidt A, Laufs H. The sensory cortical representation of the human penis: revisiting somatotopy in the male homunculus. J Neurosci : Off J Soc Neurosci. 2005;25:5984–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Mouras H, Stoleru S, Bittoun J, Glutron D, Pelegrini-Issac M, Paradis AL, et al. Brain processing of visual sexual stimuli in healthy men: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. NeuroImage. 2003;20:855–69.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Decety J, Perani D, Jeannerod M, Bettinardi V, Tadary B, Woods R, et al. Mapping motor representations with positron emission tomography. Nature. 1994;371:600–2.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Rauch SL, Shin LM, Dougherty DD, Alpert NM, Orr SP, Lasko M, et al. Neural activation during sexual and competitive arousal in healthy men. Psychiatry Res. 1999;91:1–10.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Mouras H, Stoleru S, Moulier V, Pelegrini-Issac M, Rouxel R, Grandjean B, et al. Activation of mirror-neuron system by erotic video clips predicts degree of induced erection: an fMRI study. NeuroImage. 2008;42:1142–50.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Bush G, Luu P, Posner MI. Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex. Trends Cogn Sci. 2000;4:215–22.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Whalen PJ, Bush G, McNally RJ, Wilhelm S, McInerney SC, Jenike MA, et al. The emotional counting stroop paradigm: a functional magnetic resonance imaging probe of the anterior cingulate affective division. Biol Psychiatry. 1998;44:1219–28.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Heinzel A, Walter M, Schneider F, Rotte M, Matthiae C, Tempelmann C, et al. Self-related processing in the sexual domain: a parametric event-related fMRI study reveals neural activity in ventral cortical midline structures. Soc Neurosci. 2006;1:41–51.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Augustine JR. Circuitry and functional aspects of the insular lobe in primates including humans. Brain Res Brain Res Rev. 1996;22:229–44.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Dolan RJ, Lane R, Chua P, Fletcher P. Dissociable temporal lobe activations during emotional episodic memory retrieval. NeuroImage. 2000;11:203–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Beauregard M, Levesque J, Bourgouin P. Neural correlates of conscious self-regulation of emotion. J Neurosci : Off J Soc Neurosci. 2001;21:RC165.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Hamann S, Herman RA, Nolan CL, Wallen K. Men and women differ in amygdala response to visual sexual stimuli. Nat Neurosci. 2004;7:411–6.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Kondo Y, Sachs BD, Sakuma Y. Importance of the medial amygdala in rat penile erection evoked by remote stimuli from estrous females. Behav Brain Res. 1998;91:215–22.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Terzian H, Ore GD. Syndrome of Kluver and Bucy; reproduced in man by bilateral removal of the temporal lobes. Neurology. 1955;5:373–80.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Sartorius A, Ruf M, Kief C, Demirakca T, Bailer J, Ende G, et al. Abnormal amygdala activation profile in pedophilia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2008;258:271–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Walter M, Bermpohl F, Mouras H, Schiltz K, Tempelmann C, Rotte M, et al. Distinguishing specific sexual and general emotional effects in fMRI-subcortical and cortical arousal during erotic picture viewing. NeuroImage. 2008;40:1482–94.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Temel Y, van Lankveld JJ, Boon P, Spincemaille GH, van der Linden C, Visser-Vandewalle V. Deep brain stimulation of the thalamus can influence penile erection. Int J Impot Res. 2004;16:91–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  52. Temel Y, Visser-Vandewalle V, Ackermans L, Beuls EA. Thalamus and penile erection. Int J Impot Res. 2004;16:505–11.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Argiolas A, Melis MR. Central control of penile erection: role of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Prog Neurobiol. 2005;76:1–21.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Schultz W, Apicella P, Scarnati E, Ljungberg T. Neuronal activity in monkey ventral striatum related to the expectation of reward. J Neurosci: Off J Soc Neurosci. 1992;12:4595–610.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  55. Small DM, Zatorre RJ, Dagher A, Evans AC, Jones-Gotman M. Changes in brain activity related to eating chocolate: from pleasure to aversion. Brain : J Neurol. 2001;124:1720–33.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. Ponseti J, Bosinski HA, Wolff S, Peller M, Jansen O, Mehdorn HM, et al. A functional endophenotype for sexual orientation in humans. NeuroImage. 2006;33:825–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Kuhn S, Gallinat J. Brain structure and functional connectivity associated with pornography consumption: the brain on porn. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71:827–34. In this study of pornography use, significantly more activation occurred in the left putamen during viewing of pornographic materials compared to matched nonsexual cues, indicating the left putamen is also involved in sexual processing.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. Voon V, Mole TB, Banca P, Porter L, Morris L, Mitchell S, et al. Neural correlates of sexual cue reactivity in individuals with and without compulsive sexual behaviours. PLoS One. 2014;9:e102419. This study tested the hypothesis that there would be neural circuitry similarities between these subjects with compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) as those demonstrated in processing other natural and drug rewards. The experimental paradigm employed exposing sexually explicit, erotic, and non-sexual cues to participants labeled as having CSB and those without CSB. Sexual desire corresponded to the dACC-ventral striatal-amygdala functional network. Higher subjective scores of sexual desire to explicit cues were associated with greater dACC activity and enhanced functional connectivity between the dACC, ventral striatum, and amygdala, especially in the CSB participants.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  59. Grant JE, Williams KA, Potenza MN. Impulse-control disorders in adolescent psychiatric inpatients: co-occurring disorders and sex differences. J Clin Psychiatry. 2007;68:1584–92.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Feil J, Sheppard D, Fitzgerald PB, Yucel M, Lubman DI, Bradshaw JL. Addiction, compulsive drug seeking, and the role of frontostriatal mechanisms in regulating inhibitory control. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010;35:248–75.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  61. Ponseti J, Granert O, Jansen O, Wolff S, Beier K, Neutze J, et al. Assessment of pedophilia using hemodynamic brain response to sexual stimuli. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2012;69:187–94. This study tested two classification algorithms to identify pedophilia by fMRI in male participants with self-reported pedophilic interests versus controls. Analysis of the preference-specific brain activity in the areas known to contribute to sexual processing contributed to the high classification accuracy of the authors’ algorithms to discriminate between pedophilic and non-pedophilic subjects.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Schiffer B, Krueger T, Paul T, de Greiff A, Forsting M, Leygraf N, et al. Brain response to visual sexual stimuli in homosexual pedophiles. J Psychiatry Neurosci: JPN. 2008;33:23–33.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  63. Cantor JM, Kabani N, Christensen BK, Zipursky RB, Barbaree HE, Dickey R, et al. Cerebral white matter deficiencies in pedophilic men. J Psychiatr Res. 2008;42:167–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Dr. Michelle Riba for taking the time to review this article.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

ᅟ

Conflict of Interest

Joseph C. Cheng, Joseph Secondary, William H. Burke, J. Paul Fedoroff, and R. Gregg Dwyer declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sexual Behaviors Clinic and Lab, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 29-C Leinbach Drive, Charleston, SC, 29407, USA

    Joseph C. Cheng, Joseph Secondary & William H. Burke

  2. Forensic Research Unit, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, 1145 Carling Ave, Ottawa, ON, K1Z7K4, Canada

    J. Paul Fedoroff

  3. Community and Public Safety Psychiatry Division, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, 29-C Leinbach Drive, Charleston, SC, 29407, USA

    Joseph Secondary & R. Gregg Dwyer

Authors
  1. Joseph C. Cheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Joseph Secondary
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. William H. Burke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. J. Paul Fedoroff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. R. Gregg Dwyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joseph C. Cheng.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Sexual Disorders

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cheng, J.C., Secondary, J., Burke, W.H. et al. Neuroimaging and Sexual Behavior: Identification of Regional and Functional Differences. Curr Psychiatry Rep 17, 55 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0593-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0593-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation