1. Chapter 6 Sexual Arousal and Response

2. Sexual Arousal and Response
Many factors
Emotions
Hormones
Intimacy
Social

3. Sex Hormones
Steroid hormones (ovaries/testes)
Androgens (including testosterone)
Produced by testes, adrenal glands, & ovaries
Estrogens
Produced by ovaries & testes
Women & men produce both types

4. Sex Hormones Neuropeptide hormones Oxytocin (discussed next)
Dopamine facilitates sexual arousal
Serotonin inhibits sexual arousal
Male ejaculation causes a release
Blocks oxytocin

5. Oxytocin Produced in the hypothalamus Released during sexual arousal
Escalation during orgasm
Also during breast feeding
Creates bonds and feelings of attachment

6. Sex Hormones in Male Sexual Behavior
Testosterone
Linked to sexual desire & genital sensitivity
Castration leads to reduced sexual desire
Removes testes, hence most testosterone production
Still capable of erection, though its not likely

7. Sex Hormones in Female Sexual Behavior
Estrogens
Overall link between estrogen and female sexual behavior is unclear
Testosterone
Role as major libido hormone in females
Treatment for menopause or ovariectomy

8. How Much Testosterone is Necessary?
Two forms of testosterone (free and bound)
Free testosterone linked to libido
women have less free testosterone
cells are more sensitive
Testosterone levels decrease with aging
Fairly rapid decrease for women at menopause; more gradual decline for men
Testosterone Replacement Therapy

9. Sexuality and Diversity
Sexual attitudes and behaviors differ across culture
Behaviors, e.g. kissing, oral sex, foreplay
Erotic arousal, standards for attractiveness

10. The Brain and Sexual Arousal
Cerebral cortex (mental events)
Limbic system and sexual behavior
Neurotransmitters
Dopamine facilitates sexual arousal
Serotonin inhibits sexual arousal

11. The Senses and Sexual Arousal
All sensory systems can contribute to arousal
Touch, vision, smell, taste, hearing
Touch is the dominant “sexual sense”
Primary erogenous zones
Dense nerve endings
Secondary erogenous zones
Learned experience

12. Vision Usually next in dominance Visual stimuli
Men self-report higher arousal than women
Women & men have similar physiological response
Could be social

13. Other Senses Smell may arouse or offend Pheromones
Females secrete during fertile periods
Activate hypothalamus of hetero men
In men’s sweat
Activated… women/gay men
Taste plays a minor role
Probably hard to study…
Hearing plays a variable role
Some like noises; confirms pleasure

14. Drugs and alcohol (false…) Yohimbine
Aphrodisiacs
Substances believed to arouse sexual desire or increase capacity for sexual activity
Food
Drugs and alcohol (false…)
Yohimbine
True, positive for men with ED
Some Alleged Aphrodisiacs

15. Anaphrodisiacs
Inhibit sexual behavior
Drugs (e.g. opiates, tranquilizers)
Antihypertensives, antidepressants & antipsychotics
Birth control pills
Nicotine
Constricts blood flow
Possibly reduces circulating testosterone

16. Kaplan’s Three-Stage Model
Adds desire
Up to 33% women uninterested (lack desire)
16% of men uninterested in sex
Not always started by desire
Kaplan’s three-stage model of the sexual response cycle. This model is distinguished by its identification of desire as a prelude to sexual response. Source: Kaplan 1979.

17. Sexual Response Excitement Plateau Orgasm Resolution
Master’s and Johnson’s Four Phases
Excitement
Engorgement of blood and muscle tension
Heart rate, blood pressure
Plateau
Leveling off
Orgasm
Shortest period
Resolution
Return to normal

18. Men and women’s subjective descriptions of orgasm are similar
Most female orgasms result from stimulation of the clitoris
Grafenberg spot
Area on lower front wall of vagina, sensitive to pressure
Sometimes results in “ejaculation”

19. Sex Differences in Sexual Response
Greater variability in female response
Time through phases
Male refractory period
Recovery
Serotonin released
Women can experience multiple orgasms
So can men, just perhaps need more time

20. Age-Related Changes in the Sexual Response Cycle
Common changes in the sexual response cycle of older women and men.