Schober Justine M, Pfaff Donald
Hamot Medical Center, 333 State Street, Suite 201, Erie, PA 16507, USA.
Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Sep;21(3):445-61. doi: 10.1016/j.beem.2007.04.006.
Our understanding of the process and initiation of sexual arousal is being enhanced by both animal and human studies, inclusive of basic science principles and research on clinical outcomes. Sexual arousal is dependent on neural (sensory and cognitive) factors, hormonal factors, genetic factors and, in the human case, the complex influences of culture and context. Sexual arousal activates the cognitive and physiologic processes that can eventually lead to sexual behavior. Sexual arousal comprises a particular subset of central nervous system arousal functions which depend on primitive, fundamental arousal mechanisms that cause generalized brain activity, but are manifest in a sociosexual context. The neurophysiology of sexual arousal is seen as a bidirectional system universal to all vertebrates. The following review includes known neural and genomic mechanisms of a hormone-dependent circuit for simple sex behavior. New information about hormone effects on causal steps related to sex hormones' nuclear receptor isoforms expressed by hypothalamic neurons continues to enrich our understanding of this neurophysiology.
动物研究和人体研究，包括基础科学原理及临床结果研究，都在加深我们对性唤起过程及起始的理解。性唤起取决于神经（感觉和认知）因素、激素因素、遗传因素，而对人类而言，还受文化和环境的复杂影响。性唤起会激活最终可能导致性行为的认知和生理过程。性唤起是中枢神经系统唤起功能的一个特定子集，它依赖于引发大脑普遍活动的原始、基本唤起机制，但在社会性行为背景中得以体现。性唤起的神经生理学被视为所有脊椎动物共有的双向系统。以下综述涵盖了已知的与简单性行为相关的激素依赖性回路的神经和基因组机制。关于激素对下丘脑神经元表达的性激素核受体亚型相关因果步骤影响的新信息，不断丰富着我们对这种神经生理学的理解。
