Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2012
Dopamine modulates reward system activity during subconscious processing of sexual stimuli.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural mechanisms of brand love relationship dynamics: Is the development of brand love relationships the same as that of interpersonal romantic love relationships?Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Effects of dopamine and opioid receptor antagonism on the neural processing of social and nonsocial rewards.Human brain mapping · 2024Trial
- Kisspeptin enhances brain responses to olfactory and visual cues of attraction in men.JCI insight · 2020Trial
- Modulation of anterior cingulate cortex reward and penalty signalling in medication-naive young-adult subjects with depressive symptoms following acute dose lurasidone.Psychological medicine · 2019Trial
- The effect of a dopamine antagonist on conditioning of sexual arousal in women.Psychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Erotic stimulus processing under amisulpride and reboxetine: a placebo-controlled fMRI study in healthy subjects.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2014Trial
- Modafinil augments brain activation associated with reward anticipation in the nucleus accumbens.Psychopharmacology · 2014Trial
- Nipping cue reactivity in the bud: baclofen prevents limbic activation elicited by subliminal drug cues.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2014Trial
- The use of tirzepatide to successfully treat persistent genital arousal disorder/genitopelvic dysesthesia: a case report.Sexual medicine · 2025Article
- Sexual Motivation (Desire): Problems with Current Preclinical and Clinical Evaluations of Treatment Effects and a Solution.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Depression is associated with the nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease: A comparative analysis.Health science reports · 2024Article
- The transformative power of music: Insights into neuroplasticity, health, and disease.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Review
- The Concept of "Hypersexuality" in the Boundary between Physiological and Pathological Sexuality.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- Sexual Stimuli Cause Behavioral Disinhibition in Both Men and Women, but Even More So in Men.Archives of sexual behavior · 2023Article
- Article
- Historical and Modern Evidence for the Role of Reward Circuitry in Emergence.Anesthesiology · 2022Review
- Use of Methylphenidate in Coexisting Major Depression, Loss of Libido and Erectile Dysfunction.Alpha psychiatry · 2021Article
- Using pharmacological manipulations to study the role of dopamine in human reward functioning: A review of studies in healthy adults.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Review
- The thermodynamic brain and the evolution of intellect: the role of mental energy.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2020Review
- The ups and downs of relating nondrug reward activation to substance use risk in adolescents.Current addiction reports · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Dopaminergic medication influences conscious processing of rewarding stimuli, and is associated with impulsive-compulsive behaviors, such as hypersexuality. Previous studies have shown that subconscious subliminal presentation of sexual stimuli activates brain areas known to be part of the 'reward system'. In this study, it was hypothesized that dopamine modulates activation in key areas of the reward system, such as the nucleus accumbens, during subconscious processing of sexual stimuli. Young healthy males (n=53) were randomly assigned to two experimental groups or a control group, and were administered a dopamine antagonist (haloperidol), a dopamine agonist (levodopa), or placebo. Brain activation was assessed during a backward-masking task with subliminally presented sexual stimuli. Results showed that levodopa significantly enhanced the activation in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal anterior cingulate when subliminal sexual stimuli were shown, whereas haloperidol decreased activations in those areas. Dopamine thus enhances activations in regions thought to regulate 'wanting' in response to potentially rewarding sexual stimuli that are not consciously perceived. This running start of the reward system might explain the pull of rewards in individuals with compulsive reward-seeking behaviors such as hypersexuality and patients who receive dopaminergic medication.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.