In 2013 a paper titled Gender Difference in Brain Activation to Audio-Visual Sexual Stimulation; do women and men experience the same level of arousal in response to the same video? was released. In order to evaluate sexual arousal, the study uses conventional audio-visual stimulation, a universal material used to measure arousal. Within the study, they investigated which areas of the brain were activated whilst watching the same clips in order to measure what type of stimulation was most likely to cause brain activation. Aware that the conditions for a woman to become aroused are more complex, the team introduced two different audio-visual stimulation. One was deemed a ‘mood type’ meaning that the video clips were accompanied with a concrete story, the other was a ‘physical type’ whereby it directly exposed sexual intercourse and genitalia. These are the findings of the paper:
The paper opens by making the crucial distinction between arousal and desire, further explaining how the human sexual response, sexual desire, and response to sexual stimulation are completely different between men and women. Men are generally more likely to respond positively to visual sexual stimulation such as erotic videos, but for women, audio stimulation and emotionally relevant sexual stimulation are significantly more likely to result in arousal. The study further states that adolescent boys may experience a strong genital response to visual sexual stimuli, which is usually accompanied by feeling the need to masturbate. In contrast, adolescent girls’ sexual feelings often arise from emotional reactions to their partners. These may be referred to as “the gender differences of the sexual response and sexual function.” Because of these previous findings, the authors realized that “for optimal outcome, we should therefore consider the different preferences of the two genders when studying sexual function and dysfunction”. Merely showing a video that focused on intercourse and genitals would have worked positively for the men but would be less likely to result in stimulation in the brain for women.
Method
The study was made out of 20 heterosexual participants (10 men, 10 women) who were sexually active. In order to screen for any mental illnesses such as stress and anxiety which can affect sexual response, all subjects filled out a questionnaire. The paper did mention that subjects who were either in the ovulation or menstruation phase of their cycle were rejected from the study, as the cyclic hormones could have had an impact on their sexual response. All subjects viewed these two erotic videos in a random order without recieivng any prior information about the videos. After viewing each type of the video, subjects were instructed to score from 1-5 their degree of sexual arousal.
Findings
All 20 participants reported sexual arousal from visual stimulation, but the degree of arousal differed by type of stimulation and gender. Men showed a preference and higher self-reported arousal for physical type (type 2) visual stimulation. Women, on the other hand, preferred erotic stimulation with a storyline and erotic mood (type 1). Chung et al explains “Functional images activated by erotic sexual stimulation and similar areas of the brain cortex in both genders included: the cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, parahippocampus, temporal lobe, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and insula. However, women did not show any significant activation at the amygdala.” Type 1 stimulation (mood) showed that women exhibited far more activation in the right part of the brain such as the right temporal lobe, right occipital lobe, and the right olfactory grove. Similar results were seen for men when watching the type 2 stimulation (physical type). When comparing the response, men showed a much larger difference between type 1 and type 2 stimuli than women. I don’t know anything about brains or science, but this sure seems like stimulation is far more complex than I originally thought. Prior to reading this study, I was completely clueless as to how big of a role the brain plays in sexual responses and arousal. Although the specific scientific labels of the brain don’t mean too much to me, the findings reassured me that my arousal to audio is completely normal and natural. I MUCH prefer listening to erotica/reading it compared to watching pornography (which, let’s face it, is mostly tailored to men and their sexual response).
Discussion
Sexual arousal in response to sexual stimulation appears simultaneously or separately in the brain and genitalia. Women experience less correlation between genital sexual arousal and feelings of sexual arousal than men do. The paper reinforces the importance of having erotic films that are suited for both men and women in order to properly study the female sexual function. Our Nymphomeida blog has a plethora of readings and research on pornography and the science and ethics behind it. Examples include the debate between art and pornography, Audiodesires, and where you can find ethical porn. “Conventional AVSs, which are traditionally male-oriented erotic films, have clear limitations when identifying brain activation areas in women.” Interestingly, the paper points out that someone who has transitioned from male-to-female responded more similarly to female control subjects than male control subjects during viewings of erotic stimuli.
Erotic films for audio-visual stimulation can be used to diagnose sexual dysfunction. However these clips are usually male-oriented versions of sexual stimulation, so as this paper discovered, this would not be a suitable method to measure sexual arousal in women. “Results of analyses intended to differentiate female sexual dysfunction by their response to an improper sexual stimulation may not reflect the patient’s actual sexual problem.” This indicates that women need different visual sexual stimulation means that clinicians should consider this difference when applying the audio-visual stimulation to evaluation and/or diagnose female sexual dysfunction.