Homosexual Women Have Less Grey Matter in Perirhinal Cortex than Heterosexual Women

Is sexual orientation associated with structural differences in the brain? To address this question, 80 homosexual and heterosexual men and women (16 homosexual men and 15 homosexual women) underwent structural MRI. We used voxel-based morphometry to test for differences in grey matter concentration associated with gender and sexual orientation. Compared with heterosexual women, homosexual women displayed less grey matter bilaterally in the temporo-basal cortex, ventral cerebellum, and left ventral premotor cortex. The relative decrease in grey matter was most prominent in the left perirhinal cortex. The left perirhinal area also showed less grey matter in heterosexual men than in heterosexual women. Thus, in homosexual women, the perirhinal cortex grey matter displayed a more male-like structural pattern. This is in accordance with previous research that revealed signs of sex-atypical prenatal androgenization in homosexual women, but not in homosexual men. The relevance of the perirhinal area for high order multimodal (olfactory and visual) object, social, and sexual processing is discussed

Universal Connection through Art: Role of Mirror Neurons in Art Production and Reception.

Art is defined as expression or application of human creative skill and imagination producing works to be appreciated primarily for their aesthetic value or emotional power. This definition encompasses two very important elements—the creation and reception of art—and by doing so it establishes a link, a dialogue between the artist and spectator. From the evolutionary biological perspective, activities need to have an immediate or remote effect on the population through improving survival, gene selection, and environmental adjustment, and this includes art. It may serve as a universal means of communication bypassing time, cultural, ethnic, and social differences. The neurological mechanisms of both art production and appreciation are researched by neuroscientists and discussed both in terms of healthy brain biology and complex neuronal networking perspectives. In this paper, we describe folk art and the issue of symbolic archetypes in psychoanalytic thought as well as offer neuronal mechanisms for art by emphasizing mirror/neurons and the role they play in it

AROUSED AND MIND-WONDERING: EEG CONNECTIVITY PATTERN OF THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK DURING FREE VIEWING OF SEXUALLY EXPLICIT VIDEO

O DMN pode ser considerado uma das redes de resting state (RSNs) mais estudadas. Esta rede compreende como principais hubs, o córtex pré-frontal medial (mPFC) e o córtex cingulado posterior (PCC) e por isso desempenha um papel no processamento autorreferencial. Um estudo anterior avaliou modificações da conectividade funcional nos hubs do DMN durante a visualização passiva de um vídeo erótico em pacientes com disfunção erétil, destacando um possível papel desempenhado pelo DMN na memória autobiográfica relacionada a contextos sexuais explícitos. No entanto, pouco se sabe sobre as modificações de conectividade funcional dos EEG power spectrum no DMN e estados de arousal sexual em mulheres. Neste estudo, 10 mulheres sem disfunções sexuais ou histórico de doenças médicas gerais participaram na visualização de um longo vídeo erótico enquanto a sua atividade EEG foi gravada. O estímulo erótico apresentado foi dividido em 4 fases que corresponderam a interações sexuais representadas no vídeo. 19 elétrodos considerados como correspondentes às zonas de ativação dos DMN hubs foram selecionados. As correlações obtidas dos power spectrum DMN para cada fase foram mais significativas para a banda de frequência beta sobre os elétrodos central, parietal e occipital. O processamento autorreferencial interno associado à atividade dos hubs do DMN pode estar presente durante os estados de arousal sexual em mulheres. Esta relação potencial precisa de ser investigada mais profundamente. Palavras-chave: DMN; EEG; excitação sexual; power spectrum; mulheres.The DMN can be considered one of the most studied resting-state networks (RSNs). This network comprises principal hubs, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and plays a role in self-referential processing. A previous study assessed functional connectivity modifications in the DMN hubs during passive viewing of long-VSS in erectile dysfunction patients, hypothesizing a possible role played by the DMN in autobiographical memory related to explicit sexual contexts. However, little is known about functional connectivity modifications of EEG power spectra in the DMN and sexually aroused states in terms of power spectra analysis in women. In this study, 10 women with no sexual dysfunctions or history of general medical diseases engaged in the free viewing of a long erotic clip while their EEG was recorded. The erotic stimuli presented was divided in 4 phases that corresponded to sexual interactions presented. 19 electrodes to access DMN activity. DMN power spectra correlations for each phase were more significant for beta power frequency band over central, parietal, and occipital sites. Internal self-related processing associated to DMN activity might be present during sexual aroused states in women. This potential link needs to be further investigated. Keywords: DMN; EEG; sexual arousal; power spectrum; women

From agents to objects: Sexist attitudes and neural responses to sexualized targets.

Abstract ■ Agency attribution is a hallmark of mind perception; thus, diminished attributions of agency may disrupt social-cognition processes typically elicited by human targets. The current studies examine the effect of perceiversʼ sexist attitudes on associations of agency with, and neural responses to, images of sexualized and clothed men and women. In Study 1, male ( but not female) participants with higher hostile sexism scores more quickly associated sexualized women with first-person action verbs ("handle") and clothed women with third-person action verbs ("handles") than the inverse, as compared to their less sexist peers. In Study 2, hostile sexism correlated negatively with activation of regions associated with mental state attribution-medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, temporal poles-but only when viewing sexualized women. Heterosexual men best recognized images of sexualized female bodies (but not faces), as compared with other targetsʼ bodies; however, neither face nor body recognition was related to hostile sexism, suggesting that the fMRI findings are not explained by more or less attention to sexualized female targets. Diminished mental state attribution is not unique to targets that people prefer to avoid, as in dehumanization of stigmatized people. The current studies demonstrate that appetitive social targets may elicit a similar response depending on perceiversʼ attitudes toward them.

Processing of primary and secondary rewards: A quantitative meta-analysis and review of human functional neuroimaging studies

One fundamental question concerning brain reward mechanisms is to determine how reward-related activity is influenced by the nature of rewards. Here, we review the neuroimaging literature and explicitly assess to what extent the representations of primary and secondary rewards overlap in the human brain. To achieve this goal, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of 87 studies (1452 subjects) comparing the brain responses to monetary, erotic and food reward outcomes. Those three rewards robustly engaged a common brain network including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, ventral striatum, amygdala, anterior insula and mediodorsal thalamus, although with some variations in the intensity and location of peak activity. Money-specific responses were further observed in the most anterior portion of the orbitofrontal cortex, supporting the idea that abstract secondary rewards are represented in evolutionary more recent brain regions. In contrast, food and erotic (i.e. primary) rewards were more strongly represented in the anterior insula, while erotic stimuli elicited particularly robust responses in the amygdala. Together, these results indicate that the computation of experienced reward value does not only recruit a core "reward system" but also reward type-dependent brain structures

Specific factors and methodological decisions influencing brain responses to sexual stimuli in women

Most of the neuroimaging studies on sexual behavior have been conducted with male participants, leading to men-based models of sexual arousal. Here, possible factors and methodological decisions that might influence brain responses to sexual stimuli, specifically for the inclusion of women, will be reviewed. Based on this review, we suggest that future studies consider the following factors: menstrual phase, hormonal contraception use, history of sexual or psychiatric disorders or diseases, and medication use. Moreover, when researching sexual arousal, we suggest future studies assess sexual orientation and preferences, that women should select visual sexual stimuli, and a longer duration than commonly used. This review is thought to represent a useful guideline for future research in sexual arousal, which hopefully will lead to a higher inclusion of women and therefore more accurate neurobiological models of sexual arousal

Resting State Functional Connectivity of the Lateral and Medial Hypothalamus in Cocaine Dependence: An Exploratory Study

The role of dopamine in cocaine misuse has been extensively documented for the mesocorticolimbic circuit. Preclinical work from earlier lesion studies to recent multidisciplinary investigations has suggested that the hypothalamus is critically involved in motivated behavior, with the lateral and medial hypothalamus each involved in waking/feeding and resting/satiety. However, little is known of hypothalamus function and dysfunction in cocaine misuse. Here, we examined resting state functional connectivity of the lateral and medial hypothalamus in 70 individuals with cocaine dependence (CD) and 70 age as well as gender matched healthy controls (HC). Image pre-processing and analyses followed published work. Compared to HC, CD showed increased lateral hypothalamic connectivity with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and decreased functional connectivity with the ventral precuneus. CD showed increased medial hypothalamic connectivity with the inferior parietal lobule and decreased connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and ventral striatum. Further, at trend level significance, the connectivity strength between lateral hypothalamus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was positively correlated with total amount of cocaine use in the past month (p = 0.004, r = 0.35) and the connectivity strength between medial hypothalamus and ventral striatum was negatively correlated with cocaine craving as assessed by the Tiffany Cocaine Craving Questionnaire (p = 0.008, r = −0.33). Together, the findings demonstrated altered resting state functional connectivity of the hypothalamus and may provide new insight on circuit level deficits in cocaine dependence

Mapping the Spatiotemporal Evolution of Emotional Processing: An MEG Study Across Arousal and Valence Dimensions

Electrophysiological and functional neuroimaging findings indicate that the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of emotional dimensions (i.e., valence, arousal) constitute a spatially and temporally distributed emotional network, modulated by the arousal and/or valence of the emotional stimuli. We examined the time course and source distribution of gamma time-locked magnetoencephalographic activity in response to a series of emotional stimuli viewed by healthy adults. We used a beamformer and a sliding window analysis to generate a succession of spatial maps of event-related brain responses across distinct levels of valence (pleasant/unpleasant) and arousal (high/low) in 30–100 Hz. Our results show parallel emotion-related responses along specific temporal windows involving mainly dissociable neural pathways for valence and arousal during emotional picture processing. Pleasant valence was localized in the left inferior frontal gyrus, while unpleasant valence in the right occipital gyrus, the precuneus, and the left caudate nucleus. High arousal was processed by the left orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and inferior frontal gyrus, as well as the right middle temporal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and occipital gyrus. Pleasant by high arousal interaction was localized in the left inferior and superior frontal gyrus, as well as the right caudate nucleus, putamen, and gyrus rectus. Unpleasant by high arousal interaction was processed by the right superior parietal gyrus. Valence was prioritized (onset at ∼60 ms) to all other effects, while pleasant valence was short lived in comparison to unpleasant valence (offsets at ∼110 and ∼320 ms, respectively). Both arousal and valence × arousal interactions emerged relatively early (onset at ∼150 ms, and ∼170 ms, respectively). Our findings support the notion that brain regions differentiate between valence and arousal, and demonstrate, for the first time, that these brain regions may also respond to distinct combinations of these two dimensions within specific time windows