Turnbull Oliver H, Lovett Victoria E, Chaldecott Jackie, Lucas Marilyn D
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.
Cortex. 2014 Apr;53:146-54. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.07.010. Epub 2013 Aug 1.
Erogenous zones have paradoxical response properties, producing erotic feelings from body surfaces distant from the genitalia. Ramachandran has suggested an intriguing neuroscientific explanation for the distribution of erogenous zones, based on the arrangement of body parts (such as the adjacent positioning of the genitals and the feet) in primary somatosensory cortex (S1). The present study represents the first systematic survey of the magnitude of erotic sensations from various body parts, as well as the first empirical investigation of the S1 theory of erogenous zones, by analysis of whether evaluations of erogenous magnitude from adjacent S1 sites tend to correlate.
A sample of some 800 participants, primarily from the British Isles and Sub-Saharan Africa, completed a survey of 41 body parts, each rated for erogenous intensity.
Ratings for the feet were surprisingly low. However, there were remarkable levels of correlation between ratings of intensity, regardless of the age, sexual orientation, nationality, race and, more surprisingly, the sex of our participant sample (R(2) values ranging between .90 and .98). Multiple regression and factor analysis investigated whether body parts nearby in S1 were significantly correlated.
The S1 hypothesis appears to lack support, because of the low level of foot ratings, the lack of inter-correlation between ratings for nearby S1 sites, and the previous literature suggesting that cortical stimulation of S1 does not appear to be erotogenic. The consistency across demographic variables is open to multiple interpretations. However, it may be that individual experience or cultural differences (a starting point for some accounts of erogenous zone distribution) are not substantial determining variables. Thus, while S1 does not appear to be the likely site that would support Ramachandran's neural body map proposal, we suggest that the origins of erogenous distribution may derive from a map located elsewhere in the brain.
性敏感区具有矛盾的反应特性，能从远离生殖器的身体表面产生性快感。拉马钱德兰基于身体部位（如生殖器和脚的相邻位置）在初级体感皮层（S1）中的排列，为性敏感区的分布提出了一个有趣的神经科学解释。本研究首次对来自身体各部位的性快感强度进行了系统调查，也是首次通过分析相邻S1区域的性敏感程度评估是否相关，对性敏感区的S1理论进行实证研究。
约800名主要来自不列颠群岛和撒哈拉以南非洲的参与者完成了一项对41个身体部位的调查，每个部位都被评定了性敏感强度。
脚部的评分出奇地低。然而，无论参与者样本的年龄、性取向、国籍、种族，更令人惊讶的是性别如何，强度评分之间都存在显著的相关性水平（R²值在0.90至0.98之间）。多元回归和因子分析研究了S1中相邻身体部位的评分是否显著相关。
S1假说似乎缺乏支持，原因在于脚部评分较低、S1相邻区域评分之间缺乏相互关联，以及先前的文献表明对S1的皮层刺激似乎不会产生性唤起。人口统计学变量之间的一致性有多种解释。然而，可能个体经历或文化差异（性敏感区分布某些解释的起点）并非重要的决定性变量。因此，虽然S1似乎不太可能是支持拉马钱德兰神经身体图谱提议的部位，但我们认为性敏感区分布的起源可能来自大脑其他部位的图谱。
