Visual sexual stimuli induced asymmetrical activation on Broca's area on right hemisphere:an fMRI research / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the brain activation patten associated with visual sexual stimuli.Method:Thirteen healthy right-handed women were enrolled through advertisements on campus.They were scanned under functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) when they watched emotional neutral films excepts and erotic films excepts.Statistic on theses data reveals the difference of brain activation.Result:The results showed that,compared to emotional neutral films,sexual visual stimuli were associated with the activation of a set of bilateral brain areas including lateral occipital cortex,postcentral gyrus,superior parietal lobule,occipital fusiform gyrus, hippocampus,and so on.Most activated brain areas are bilateral.Only in inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis(Z=3.64,P<0.0001) and pars triangular(Z=3.42,P=0.003) there were significant right hemispheric activation.Conclusion:fMRI results indicate that inferior frontal gyrus is related to the visual sexual stimuli of women subjects,and is specified on the right hemisphere rather than left one.This sphere-special area may play an important role on sexual message processing.