| Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the sex differences of the cognitive processing and psychological rating in response to different types erotic pictures of IAPS(International Affective Picture System)in university students.Methods: The present study adopted an implicit affective-task and a modified Oddball paradigm. Data collected from 38 University students using event related potentials (ERPs) , and 33 effective data(male:15; female:18) were analyzed. Did N2 (it indexes"early natural selective attention") and P3,PSW (they are related to the late stimuli evaluation and attentional maintenance)components amplitude have sex differences while subjects viewed different type" erotic pictures" and "neutral human pictures". Furthermore, The stimuli were then re-presented and participants were re- quired to rate each slide on level of pleasure, arousal, and approach tendency, on a nine-point Likert scale via a computer monitor, after the experimental task was com- pleted , in order to investigate the psychological sexual arousal.Results: Behavior data showed males rated the pleasure and approach motivation of "heterosexual couple erotic pictures" and "female erotic pictures" higher than females (respectively, P <0.05). Females rated the arousal of "male erotic pictures"higher than males, but the pleasure and approach motivation had not significant sex differences. There had not significant differences in levels of pleasure, arousal and approach motivation in response to "heterosexual couple erotic pictures" and "female erotic pictures" in male students, but the scores of three dimensions in response to "heterosexual couple erotic pictures" and "female erotic pictures" were all significantly higher than that of "male erotic pictures " and "neutral images of people" (respectively, P <0.05). Furthermore, the pleasure, arousal and approach motivation of "male erotic pictures"and "neutral images of people" in males had not significant differences. The scores of arousal and approach motivation of "heterosexual couple erotic pictures" were significantly higher than "male erotic pictures "and "female erotic pictures"(respectively, P <0.05), but the pleasure had not significant differences in the three types erotic pictures and "neutral images of people" in females. Furthermore, the arousal and approach motivation had not significant differences in response to "male erotic pictures "and "female erotic pictures" in females.ERP showed the N2,P3 and PSW amplitudes had not significant differences between males and females. The N2 component had not significant differences among three types erotic pictures in males and females. The P3 component had not significant differences among three types erotic pictures in males, but the differences were significant in females. The P3 component was larger in response to "heterosexual couple erotic pictures" than "male erotic pictures " (P <0.05). The PSW amplitude evoked by each type erotic pictures has significant differences. The PSW amplitude was largest evoked by "heterosexual couple erotic pictures", followed by "female erotic pictures", and then was the "male erotic pictures ". However, except for the PSW components induced by the "female erotic pictures" and "male erotic pictures " were not statistically significant differences in males, the others had significant differences in pairwise comparison(P均<0.05). Furthermore, all types of erotic pictures induced significantly larger N2, P3 and PSW than "neutral images of people".Conclusions: The relationship between psychological sexual arousal patterns and self-report sexual orientation (sexual interest) is more consistent in heterosexual males than heterosexual females. For males ,The stimuli that decrypting opposite sex erotic contents evoked stronger psychological sexual arousal,more pleasure and stronger appetitive motivation . However, the consistence between psychological sexual arousal patterns and self-report sexual orientation (sexual interest) is lower in heterosexual females than heterosexual males. For females, The levels of psycho- logical sexual arousal,pleasure and approach motivation induced by same sex erotic pictures and opposite sex erotic pictures have not significant differences. But the psychological sexual arousal and approach motivation evoked by explicit erotic contents are strongest. In the aspect of cognitive sexual arousal, the cognitive processing for three types erotic images have not significant sex differences in males and females. But in the attentional maintenance stage, the explicit "heterosexual couple erotic pictures" attract most attentional resources and the sexual arousal can maintain more long-terms. |
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