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Abstracts
  • Schwabe, L., Merz, C. J., Walter, B., Vaitl, D., Wolf, O. T., & Stark, R. (2011). Emotional modulation of the attentional blink: the neural structures involved in capturing and holding attention. Neuropsychologia, 49(3), 416–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.12.037

    Perceiving a first target stimulus (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation stream results in a transient impairment in detecting a second target (T2). This "attentional blink" is modulated by the emotional relevance of T1 and T2. The present experiment examined the neural underpinnings of the emotional modulation of the attentional blink. Behaviorally, the attentional blink was reduced for emotional T2 while emotional T1 led to a prolonged attentional blink. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we observed amygdala activation associated with the reduced attentional blink for emotional T2 in the face of neutral T1. The prolonged attentional blink following emotional T1 was correlated with enhanced activity in a cortical network including the anterior cingulate cortex, the insula and the orbitofrontal cortex. These results suggest that brain areas previously implicated in rather reflexive emotional reactions are responsible for the reduced attentional blink for emotional T2 whereas neural structures previously related to higher level processing of emotional information mediate the prolonged attentional blink following emotional T1.

  • Wehrum, S., Klucken, T., Kagerer, S., Walter, B., Hermann, A., Vaitl, D., & Stark, R. (2013). Gender commonalities and differences in the neural processing of visual sexual stimuli. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 10(5), 1328–1342. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsm.12096

    INTRODUCTION: Few studies so far have directly compared the neural processing of visual sexual stimuli in men and women. Also, most of these studies only compared sexual with neutral stimuli, making it difficult to disentangle sexual stimulus processing from general emotional processing. AIM: The current study aimed to explore gender commonalities and differences in neural activity associated with the processing of visual sexual stimuli in a large sample of 50 men and 50 women. In order to disentangle effects of sexual processing from those of general emotional processing, we employed sexual, neutral, positive, and negative emotional pictures. METHODS: Subjects passively viewed sexual, neutral, positive, and negative emotional pictures during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session. Pictures were presented in 24 blocks of five pictures each. Every block was rated immediately after its presentation with respect to valence, arousal, and sexual arousal. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood oxygen level dependent responses measured by fMRI and subjective ratings. RESULTS: fMRI analysis revealed a distributed network for the neural processing of sexual stimuli comprising the hypothalamus, the nucleus accumbens, as well as orbitofrontal, occipital, and parietal areas. This network could be identified (i) for both men and women, with men showing overall stronger activations than women and (ii) independent of general emotional arousal or valence effects. CONCLUSION: Our data speak in favor of a common neural network associated with the processing of visual sexual stimuli in men and women. Apart from the observed gender commonalities, overall stronger responses in men were observed that might indicate stronger sexual responsivity in men.

  • Kagerer, S., Klucken, T., Wehrum, S., Zimmermann, M., Schienle, A., Walter, B., Vaitl, D., & Stark, R. (2011). Neural activation toward erotic stimuli in homosexual and heterosexual males. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8(11), 3132–3143. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2011.02449.x

    INTRODUCTION: Studies investigating sexual arousal exist, yet there are diverging findings on the underlying neural mechanisms with regard to sexual orientation. Moreover, sexual arousal effects have often been confounded with general arousal effects. Hence, it is still unclear which structures underlie the sexual arousal response in homosexual and heterosexual men. AIM: Neural activity and subjective responses were investigated in order to disentangle sexual from general arousal. Considering sexual orientation, differential and conjoint neural activations were of interest. METHODS: The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study focused on the neural networks involved in the processing of sexual stimuli in 21 male participants (11 homosexual, 10 heterosexual). Both groups viewed pictures with erotic content as well as aversive and neutral stimuli. The erotic pictures were subdivided into three categories (most sexually arousing, least sexually arousing, and rest) based on the individual subjective ratings of each participant. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood oxygen level-dependent responses measured by fMRI and subjective ratings. RESULTS: A conjunction analysis revealed conjoint neural activation related to sexual arousal in thalamus, hypothalamus, occipital cortex, and nucleus accumbens. Increased insula, amygdala, and anterior cingulate gyrus activation could be linked to general arousal. Group differences emerged neither when viewing the most sexually arousing pictures compared with highly arousing aversive pictures nor compared with neutral pictures. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that a widespread neural network is activated by highly sexually arousing visual stimuli. A partly distinct network of structures underlies sexual and general arousal effects. The processing of preferred, highly sexually arousing stimuli recruited similar structures in homosexual and heterosexual males.

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