Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 66045-7556, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Nov;7(8):924-36. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr065. Epub 2011 Oct 17.
Sexual arousal is thought to be the result of two levels of processing: conscious and unconscious. Whereas some research exists on the neural correlates related with conscious exposure to sexual stimuli, there are no parallel data regarding unconscious or subliminal exposure to such stimuli. In the present study, we therefore compared brain activation of 39 participants (20 women) as they were exposed to supraliminal vs subliminal sexual stimuli. Supraliminal exposure was associated with greater activation in areas that were previously associated with sexual arousal (e.g. caudate nucleus and thalamus) as well as areas that were previously associated with control (e.g. orbitofrontal cortex and cingulate cortex). In contrast, subliminal exposure was mainly related to activation in areas previously associated with sexual arousal. Men and women exhibited theoretically meaningful differences in patterns of activation associated with supra- and subliminal exposure. Findings are discussed with regard to sexual arousal and regulatory processes.
意识和无意识。虽然有一些关于与有意识地暴露于性刺激相关的神经关联的研究，但对于无意识或阈下暴露于此类刺激则没有平行数据。在本研究中，我们比较了 39 名参与者（20 名女性）在暴露于超阈和阈下性刺激时的大脑激活情况。超阈暴露与之前与性唤起相关的区域（例如尾状核和丘脑）以及之前与控制相关的区域（例如眶额皮质和扣带皮质）的更大激活有关。相比之下，阈下暴露主要与之前与性唤起相关的区域的激活有关。男性和女性在与超阈和阈下暴露相关的激活模式上表现出理论上有意义的差异。研究结果与性唤起和调节过程有关。
