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Brain activation by visual erotic stimuli in healthy middle aged males

International Journal of Impotence Research volume 18, pages 452–457 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to identify brain centers, whose activity changes are related to erotic visual stimuli in healthy, heterosexual, middle aged males. Ten heterosexual, right-handed males with normal sexual function were entered into the present study (mean age 52 years, range 46–55). All potential subjects were screened over 1 h interview, and were encouraged to fill out questionnaires including the Brief Male Sexual Function Inventory. All subjects with a history of sexual arousal disorder or erectile dysfunction were excluded. We performed functional brain magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in male volunteers when an alternatively combined erotic and nonerotic film was played for 14 min and 9 s. The major areas of activation associated with sexual arousal to visual stimuli were occipitotemporal area, anterior cingulate gyrus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, caudate nucleus. However, hypothalamus and thalamus were not activated. We suggest that the nonactivation of hypothalamus and thalamus in middle aged males may be responsible for the lesser physiological arousal in response to the erotic visual stimuli.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grant No. R01-2003-000-10432-0 from the Basic Research Program of the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

    S W Kim, D W Sohn & Y-H Cho

  2. Department of Psychiatry, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

    W S Yang, K-U Lee, S-I Han, C U Lee & J-H Chae

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

    R Juh

  4. Department of Radiology, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

    K-J Ahn

  5. Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

    Y-A Chung

  6. School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

    K H Lee

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  1. S W Kim
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Correspondence to J-H Chae.

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Kim, S., Sohn, D., Cho, YH. et al. Brain activation by visual erotic stimuli in healthy middle aged males. Int J Impot Res 18, 452–457 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijir.3901449

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