Ishai Alumit
Institute of Neuroradiology, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2007 Feb;63(2):181-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2006.03.010. Epub 2006 Jun 6.
Face perception is mediated by a distributed neural system in the human brain. Attention, memory and emotion modulate the neural activation evoked by faces, however the effects of gender and sexual orientation are currently unknown. To test whether subjects would respond more to their sexually-preferred faces, we scanned 40 hetero- and homosexual men and women whilst they assessed facial attractiveness. Behaviorally, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation, all subjects similarly rated the attractiveness of both male and female faces. Consistent with our hypothesis, a three-way interaction between stimulus gender, beauty and the sexual preference of the subject was found in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). In heterosexual women and homosexual men, attractive male faces elicited stronger activation than attractive female faces, whereas in heterosexual men and homosexual women, attractive female faces evoked stronger activation than attractive male faces. These findings suggest that the OFC represents the value of salient sexually-relevant faces, irrespective of their reproductive fitness.
面部感知由人类大脑中的一个分布式神经系统介导。注意力、记忆和情感会调节面部引发的神经激活，然而，性别和性取向的影响目前尚不清楚。为了测试受试者是否会对其性偏好的面孔做出更多反应，我们对40名异性恋和同性恋男性及女性进行了扫描，同时他们对面部吸引力进行评估。在行为上，无论其性别和性取向如何，所有受试者对男性和女性面孔的吸引力评分都相似。与我们的假设一致，在内侧眶额皮质（OFC）中发现了刺激性别、美貌和受试者性偏好之间的三向交互作用。在异性恋女性和同性恋男性中，有吸引力的男性面孔比有吸引力的女性面孔引发更强的激活，而在异性恋男性和同性恋女性中，有吸引力的女性面孔比有吸引力的男性面孔引发更强的激活。这些发现表明，眶额皮质代表了显著的与性相关面孔的价值，而不论其生殖适应性如何。
