Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Personality, Psychological Assessment and Treatment, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain.
Department of Endocrinology & Center for Sexology and Gender, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium.
J Sex Med. 2020 Dec;17(12):2495-2507. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.08.021. Epub 2020 Nov 19.
Whereas mounting work has begun to document the neural correlates underlying sexual arousal (SA) in humans, the associations between gender identity and the brain correlates of SA as well as their hormonal contributions remain unknown.
This study investigated neural activation to sexual arousal in transgender and cisgender persons.
20 transgender men and 19 transgender women (TW) already living in their identified gender were compared to 21 cisgender men (CM) and 19 cisgender women. Participants viewed erotic and neutral video clips while undergoing 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging.
Group-specific brain activation, brain functional connectivity, and brain-hormone associations within the neurophenomenological model of sexual arousal (Stoleru et al, 2012).
Consistent with the model, participants activated most of its components. However, between-group differences were mostly showing larger activation for CM relative to any of the other 3 groups. Moreover, functional connectivity analyses (psychophysiological interactions) indicated unique patterns for CM, cisgender women, and TW in how different components of SA communicated with one another. Finally, androgens in transgender men and estrogens in TW correlated negatively with parietal cortex and primary (sensori-) motor regions, respectively, while CM showed positive correlations of androgens with parietal cortex, somatosensory regions, and the insula.
Data provide information on neurobiological changes in sexual arousal during treatment with gender-affirming hormone therapy.
STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS: Although a limitation is the lack of pretreatment data, the present study provides comprehensive information including brain activation, functional connectivity, and hormonal associations in a large sample.
The results highlight a complex picture of the neural correlates of SA in gender identity and sex assigned at birth. Mueller SC, Wierckx K, T'Sjoen G. Neural and Hormonal Correlates of Sexual Arousal in Transgender Persons. J Sex Med 2020;17:2495-2507.
尽管已经开始大量研究人类性唤起（SA）的神经相关性，但性别认同与 SA 的大脑相关性及其激素贡献之间的关联仍然未知。
本研究调查了跨性别者和顺性别者的性唤起的神经激活。
将 20 名跨性别男性和 19 名跨性别女性（TW）与 21 名顺性别男性（CM）和 19 名顺性别女性进行比较。参与者在 3 Tesla 磁共振成像（MRI）检查时观看色情和中性视频片段。
组特异性大脑激活、脑功能连接以及性唤起的神经现象学模型内的脑-激素关联（Stoleru 等人，2012）。
与模型一致，参与者激活了其大部分组成部分。然而，组间差异主要表现为 CM 相对于其他 3 组的激活更大。此外，功能连接分析（心理生理相互作用）表明，CM、顺性别女性和 TW 在 SA 的不同成分之间相互交流的方式存在独特的模式。最后，跨性别男性的雄激素和 TW 的雌激素分别与顶叶皮层和初级（感觉运动）皮层区域呈负相关，而 CM 则显示雄激素与顶叶皮层、躯体感觉区域和脑岛呈正相关。
数据提供了关于性唤起在接受性别肯定激素治疗期间的神经生物学变化的信息。
尽管缺乏预处理数据，但本研究在大样本中提供了包括大脑激活、功能连接和激素关联在内的综合信息。
研究结果强调了性别认同和出生时分配的性别的性唤起的神经相关性的复杂情况。 Mueller SC、Wierckx K、T'Sjoen G. 跨性别者性唤起的神经和激素相关性。J Sex Med 2020;17:2495-2507.
