Brain Research Unit, O.V. Lounasmaa Laboratory, School of Science, Aalto University, 00076, Espoo, Finland.
Arch Sex Behav. 2012 Dec;41(6):1439-51. doi: 10.1007/s10508-012-9911-0. Epub 2012 Mar 9.
Faces and bodies convey important information for the identification of potential sexual partners, yet clothing typically covers many of the bodily cues relevant for mating and reproduction. In this eye tracking study, we assessed how men and women viewed nude and clothed, same and opposite gender human figures. We found that participants inspected the nude bodies more thoroughly. First fixations landed almost always on the face, but were subsequently followed by viewing of the chest and pelvic regions. When viewing nude images, fixations were biased away from the face towards the chest and pelvic regions. Fixating these regions was also associated with elevated physiological arousal. Overall, men spent more time looking at female than male stimuli, whereas women looked equally long at male and female stimuli. In comparison to women, men spent relatively more time looking at the chests of nude female stimuli whereas women spent more time looking at the pelvic/genital region of male stimuli. We propose that the augmented and gender-contingent visual scanning of nude bodies reflects selective engagement of the visual attention circuits upon perception of signals relevant to choosing a sexual partner, which supports mating and reproduction.
脸和身体传达了有关潜在性伴侣识别的重要信息，但衣服通常会覆盖与交配和繁殖相关的许多身体线索。在这项眼动研究中，我们评估了男性和女性如何看待裸体和穿着衣服的、同性和异性的人体图像。我们发现参与者更仔细地检查裸体身体。首次注视几乎总是落在脸上，但随后会注视胸部和骨盆区域。当观看裸体图像时，注视点会从脸部偏向胸部和骨盆区域。注视这些区域也与生理唤醒的增加有关。总的来说，男性花在女性刺激上的时间多于男性，而女性花在男性和女性刺激上的时间相等。与女性相比，男性花更多的时间看裸体女性刺激的胸部，而女性则花更多的时间看男性刺激的骨盆/生殖器区域。我们提出，对裸体身体的增强和性别特定的视觉扫描反映了在感知与选择性伴侣相关的信号时视觉注意力回路的选择性参与，这有助于交配和繁殖。
