Human Sexuality, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2020 Jun 23;15(4):447-465. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa058.
Many women experience desires, arousal and behavior that run counter to their sexual orientation (orientation inconsistent, 'OI'). Are such OI sexual experiences cognitively and neurobiologically distinct from those that are consistent with one's sexual orientation (orientation consistent, 'OC')? To address this question, we employed a mindful attention intervention-aimed at reducing judgment and enhancing somatosensory attention-to examine the underlying attentional and neurobiological processes of OC and OI sexual stimuli among predominantly heterosexual women. Women exhibited greater neural activity in response to OC, compared to OI, sexual stimuli in regions associated with implicit visual processing, volitional appraisal and attention. In contrast, women exhibited greater neural activity to OI, relative to OC, sexual stimuli in regions associated with complex visual processing and attentional shifting. Mindfully attending to OC sexual stimuli reduced distraction, amplified women's evaluations of OC stimuli as sexually arousing and deactivated the superior cerebellum. In contrast, mindfully attending to OI sexual stimuli amplified distraction, decreased women's evaluations of OI stimuli as sexually arousing and augmented parietal and temporo-occipital activity. Results of the current study constrain hypotheses of female erotic flexibility, suggesting that sexual orientation may be maintained by differences in attentional processing that cannot be voluntarily altered.
许多女性经历的欲望、唤起和行为与她们的性取向相悖（取向不一致，“OI”）。这些与性取向不一致的性体验在认知和神经生物学上是否与与性取向一致的性体验（取向一致，“OC”）不同？为了解决这个问题，我们采用了正念注意干预措施——旨在减少判断并增强躯体感觉注意力——来研究主要为异性恋女性的 OC 和 OI 性刺激的潜在注意和神经生物学过程。与 OC 相比，女性对 OI 性刺激的神经活动更强，而 OC 则与隐含视觉处理、意志评价和注意力相关的区域相关。相比之下，与 OC 相比，女性对 OI 性刺激的神经活动更强，而 OI 则与复杂的视觉处理和注意力转移相关的区域相关。正念地关注 OC 性刺激减少了分心，增强了女性对 OC 刺激的性唤起评价，并使小脑上蚓部失活。相比之下，正念地关注 OI 性刺激增强了分心，降低了女性对 OI 刺激的性唤起评价，并增强了顶叶和颞枕叶的活动。目前研究的结果限制了女性性行为灵活性的假设，表明性取向可能是由注意力处理的差异维持的，而这种差异是无法自愿改变的。
