ArticleSocioaffective neuroscience & psychology2012
Doing it … wild? On the role of the cerebral cortex in human sexual activity.
Article in Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sexual Health After Neurological Disorders: A Comprehensive Umbrella Review of Treatment Evidence.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of Kisspeptin on Sexual Brain Processing and Penile Tumescence in Men With Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2023Trial
- Sex differences in compulsive sexual behavior disorder.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Neuroendocrine Regulation of Reproductive Behavior and Emotional Control by Kisspeptin.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Review
- Understanding heterosexual women's erotic flexibility: the role of attention in sexual evaluations and neural responses to sexual stimuli.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2020Article
- Aberrant baseline brain activity in psychogenic erectile dysfunction patients: a resting state fMRI study.Brain imaging and behavior · 2018Article
- What is orgasm? A model of sexual trance and climax via rhythmic entrainment.Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology · 2016Article
- 'High desire', or 'merely' an addiction? A response to Steele et al.Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology · 2014Article
- Pornography addiction - a supranormal stimulus considered in the context of neuroplasticity.Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology · 2013Article
- Sex for fun: a synthesis of human and animal neurobiology.Nature reviews. Urology · 2012Review
- Introductory editorial to 'the neuroscience and evolutionary origins of sexual learning'.Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWe like to think about sexual activity as something fixed, basic and primal. However, this does not seem to fully capture reality. Even when we relish sex, we may be capable of mentalizing, talking, voluntarily postponing orgasm, and much more. This might indicate that the central control mechanisms of sexual activity are quite flexible and susceptible to learning mechanisms, and that cortical brain areas play a critical part.
objectiveThis study aimed to identify those cortical areas and mechanisms most consistently implicated in sexual activity.
designA comprehensive review of the human functional neuroimaging literature on sexual activity, i.e. genital stimulation and orgasm, is made.
resultsGenital stimulation recruits the classical somatosensory matrix, but also areas far beyond that. The posterior insula may be particularly important for processing input from the engorged penis and coordinating penile responses. Extrastriate visual cortex tracks sexual arousal and responds to genital stimulation even when subjects have their eyes closed. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is also tightly coupled to sexual arousal, but low activity in this area predicts high sexual arousal.
conclusionThis review has indicated cortical sites where activity is moderated by tactile genital inflow and high sexual arousal. Behavioral implications are discussed and where possible the relevance for learning mechanisms is indicated. Overall, it is clear that the cerebral cortex has something to say about sexual activity.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.