Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Behav Res Ther. 2021 Sep;144:103915. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103915. Epub 2021 Jun 18.
Attention to sexual stimuli is a prerequisite to process such stimuli as sexually-meaningful and is an important means to facilitate sexual arousal. Attending to sexual cues is crucial for healthy sexual functioning. Studies suggest that sexual dysfunction is associated with less attention towards sexual stimuli. The goal of this study was to use an eye-tracking-based free-viewing paradigm to investigate whether women with sexual dysfunction visually attend to the genital area in dynamic sexual stimuli (i.e., erotic videos) differently than women with subclinical sexual function or those with typical sexual functioning. A total of 69 women (M = 27.77, SD = 8.00) with clinical (n = 30), subclinical (n = 23), and typical (n = 16) levels of sexual functioning watched four 1-min video clips depicting heterosexual couples engaging in vaginal intercourse or cunnilingus while the total fixation duration on the genital area as well as their subjective and genital sexual arousal were recorded. As hypothesized, the clinical group fixated on the genital area less than women with typical sexual functioning. A longer total fixation duration on the genital area was followed by increases in subjective arousal and genital arousal. The relationship between attention and arousal was not moderated by sexual functioning group. This study provides first evidence of the role of sustained visual attention for facilitating sexual arousal in women with and without sexual dysfunction.
注意性刺激是将此类刺激视为具有性意义的前提，也是促进性唤起的重要手段。注意性线索对于健康的性功能至关重要。研究表明，性功能障碍与对性刺激的关注减少有关。本研究旨在使用基于眼动追踪的自由观看范式，调查性障碍女性在观看动态性刺激（即色情视频）时是否与亚临床性功能或典型性功能女性不同，对生殖器区域的视觉关注。共有 69 名女性（M=27.77，SD=8.00）具有临床（n=30）、亚临床（n=23）和典型（n=16）性功能水平，观看了四个 1 分钟的视频片段，描绘了异性恋夫妇进行阴道性交或口交，同时记录了对生殖器区域的总注视时间以及主观和生殖器性唤起。正如假设的那样，临床组对生殖器区域的注视时间少于具有典型性功能的女性。对生殖器区域的总注视时间延长会导致主观唤起和生殖器唤起增加。注意力和唤起之间的关系不受性功能障碍组的调节。这项研究首次提供了证据，证明在有和没有性功能障碍的女性中，持续的视觉注意力对促进性唤起起着重要作用。
