ArticleFrontiers in human neuroscience2016
Visual Sexual Stimuli-Cue or Reward? A Perspective for Interpreting Brain Imaging Findings on Human Sexual Behaviors.
Article in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Cue-reactivity in behavioral addictions: A meta-analysis and methodological considerations.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2018Pooled it
- Motivational pathways to problematic pornography use: A self-determination theory perspective.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) and problematic pornography use (PPU): A comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and expert-informed narrative review with suggested future directions.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Review
- Appetitive conditioning with pornographic stimuli elicits stronger activation in reward regions than monetary and gaming-related stimuli.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- Loneliness and problematic pornography Use: What is the role of emotion regulation and interaction with content Creators?Addictive behaviors reports · 2024Article
- Early adversity and sexual diversity: the importance of self-reported and neurobiological sexual reward sensitivity.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Sexual Pleasure Matters - and How to Define and Assess It Too. A Conceptual Framework of Sexual Pleasure and the Sexual Response.International journal of sexual health : official journal of the World Association for Sexual Health · 2023Article
- Erotic cue exposure increases neural reward responses without modulating temporal discounting.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2023Article
- Neural and behavioral correlates of sexual stimuli anticipation point to addiction-like mechanisms in compulsive sexual behavior disorder.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2022Article
- Differences in structural connectivity between diabetic and psychological erectile dysfunction revealed by network-based statistic: A diffusion tensor imaging study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- An empirical study of affective and cognitive functions in Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2021Article
- Social-networks-related stimuli interferes decision making under ambiguity: Interactions with cue-induced craving and problematic social-networks use.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2021Article
- Sexual excitation and sex-linked substance use predict overall cannabis use in mostly heterosexual and bisexual women.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2021Article
- Sexual incentive delay in the scanner: Sexual cue and reward processing, and links to problematic porn consumption and sexual motivation.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2021Article
- Sexual Disorders and Quality of Life in Parkinson's Disease.Sexual medicine · 2021Review
- The Impact of Negative Mood on Event-Related Potentials When Viewing Pornographic Pictures.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Event-related potentials in a two-choice oddball task of impaired behavioral inhibitory control among males with tendencies towards cybersex addiction.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2020Article
- An integrated model to assess and treat compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.Nature reviews. Urology · 2020Review
- The Potential Associations of Pornography Use with Sexual Dysfunctions: An Integrative Literature Review of Observational Studies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2019Review
- Women at Greater Sexual Risk for STIs/HIV Have a Lower Mesolimbic and Affective Bias Response to Sexual Stimuli.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is an increasing number of neuroimaging studies using visual sexual stimuli (VSS), especially within the emerging field of research on compulsive sexual behaviors (CSB). A central question in this field is whether behaviors such as excessive pornography consumption share common brain mechanisms with widely studied substance and behavioral addictions. Depending on how VSS are conceptualized, different predictions can be formulated within the frameworks of Reinforcement Learning or Incentive Salience Theory, where a crucial distinction is made between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (related to reward anticipation vs. reward consumption, respectively). Surveying 40 recent human neuroimaging studies we show existing ambiguity about the conceptualization of VSS. Therefore, we feel that it is important to address the question of whether VSS should be considered as conditioned stimuli (cue) or unconditioned stimuli (reward). Here we present our own perspective, which is that in most laboratory settings VSS play a role of reward, as evidenced by: (1) experience of pleasure while watching VSS, possibly accompanied by genital reaction; (2) reward-related brain activity correlated with these pleasurable feelings in response to VSS; (3) a willingness to exert effort to view VSS similarly as for other rewarding stimuli such as money; and (4) conditioning for cues predictive of VSS. We hope that this perspective article will initiate a scientific discussion on this important and overlooked topic and increase attention for appropriate interpretations of results of human neuroimaging studies using VSS.
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