SynthesisFrontiers in neuroendocrinology2016
The neural basis of sex differences in sexual behavior: A quantitative meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in neuroendocrinology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural substrates of sexual arousal are not sex dependent.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Pooled it
- Meta-analytic Evidence for Neural Dysactivity Underlying Sexual Dysfunction.The journal of sexual medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Forensic neuroimaging in childhood abduction, rape and murder case and trial outcome.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2026Article
- Brain Nuclei in the Regulation of Sexual Behavior, Peripheral Nerves Related to Reproduction, and Their Alterations in Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Brief Review.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Biological, genetic, neurological and environmental influences on homosexuality-a narrative review.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Review
- Topological differences of striato-thalamo-cortical circuit in functional brain network between premature ejaculation patients with and without depression.Brain and behavior · 2024Article
- Women and men with distressing low sexual desire exhibit sexually dimorphic brain processing.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Pattern recognition reveals sex-dependent neural substrates of sexual perception.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Erotic cue exposure increases neural reward responses without modulating temporal discounting.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2023Article
- Distended Seminal Vesicles Are Involved in Specific Cerebral Sexual Arousal: A Pilot Study Using Functional Brain Imaging in Young Healthy Men.European urology open science · 2022Article
- The Brain Activation-Based Sexual Image Classifier (BASIC): A Sensitive and Specific fMRI Activity Pattern for Sexual Image Processing.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2022Article
- Descriptive Study of Gender Dysphoria and Sexual Behavior in a Disorder of Sex Development Group.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Hearing, touching, and multisensory integration during mate choice.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2022Review
- 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
- Sex differences in neural responses to reward and the influences of individual reward and punishment sensitivity.BMC neuroscience · 2021Article
- Reply to Poeppl et al.: Controlling for false positive rates is critical for accurate and consistent interpretation of findings.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Neural substrates of sexual arousal revisited: Dependent on sex.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Pharmacotherapy of Sexual Addiction.Current psychiatry reports · 2020Review
- Hypothalamic response to cocaine cues and cocaine addiction severity.Addiction biology · 2020Article
- Hypothalamic Responses to Cocaine and Food Cues in Individuals with Cocaine Dependence.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Sexuality as to its etymology presupposes the duality of sexes. Using quantitative neuroimaging meta-analyses, we demonstrate robust sex differences in the neural processing of sexual stimuli in thalamus, hypothalamus, and basal ganglia. In a narrative review, we show how these relate to the well-established sex differences on the behavioral level. More specifically, we describe the neural bases of known poor agreement between self-reported and genital measures of female sexual arousal, of previously proposed male proneness to affective sexual conditioning, as well as hints of unconscious activation of bonding mechanisms during sexual stimulation in women. In summary, our meta-analytic review demonstrates that neurofunctional sex differences during sexual stimulation can account for well-established sex differences in sexual behavior.
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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.