Current Topics: Organ Diseases and Autonomic Nervous System
Sexual Interest and Neuroimaging of the Site of the Libido
2016 年 62 巻 5 号 p. 381-385
詳細
2016 年 62 巻 5 号 p. 381-385
In humans, the sexual cyclicity of estrus that occurs in animals is not present, and sexuality is sometimes evoked by the imagination. The central site of the libido has long been unclear. We analyzed the site of the libido in healthy male volunteers with the aid of the RigiScan plus™, which can evaluate the erectile state in real time. By evaluating the erectile phenomenon in real time, we could confirm that sexual stimulation was fully transmitted and could identify the phases of sexual activity. In the excitement phase, the occipital lobe is the area specifically activated as indicated by positron emission tomography. We also found that in addition to this area, part of the cerebellar vermis was specifically activated. During the plateau phase, the occipital lobe, which contains the visual cortex, and the temporal lobe, which contains the auditory cortex, became more highly activated than during the excitement phase, and in addition, the ventral striatum (putamen) was specifically activated. Although these findings are interesting and important in the field of sexual medicine, it is supposed that the subjects show interest in sexually stimulating videos and watch them in many imaging analyses of the site of the libido. Regarding sexual interest, we reported that a sex difference existed in visual attention to a sexual video by an eye-tracking system. We also showed that attention to the sexual region in the video depends on the personality characteristics of men. Here, we show recent evidence of sexual libido and interest including our experimental results.
