Abstract
Several studies highlighted the role of insula on several functions and in sexual behavior. This exploratory study examines the relationships among genital responses, brain responses, and eye movements, to disentangle the role played by the anterior and posterior insula during different stages of male sexual response and during visual attention to sexual stimuli. In 19 healthy men, fMRI, eye movement, and penile tumescence data were collected during a visual sexual stimulation task. After a whole-brain analysis comparing neutral and sexual clips and confirming a role for the bilateral insulae, we selected two bilateral seed regions in anterior and posterior insula for functional connectivity analysis. Single-ROI-GLMs were run for the FC target regions. Single-ROI-GLMs were performed based on areas to which participants fixate: “Faces”, “Genitals,” and “Background” with the contrast “Genitals > Faces”. Single-ROI-GLMs with baseline, onset, and sustained PT response for the sexual clips were performed. We found stronger effects for the posterior than the anterior insula. In the target regions of the posterior insula, we found three different pathways: the first involved in visual attention, onset of erection, and sustained erection; the second involved only in the onset of erection, and the third limited to sustained erection.
Highlights
Several studies highlighted the role of insula on several functions and in sexual behavior
For the eye movement data, we found that the parameters showed a significant difference (λ(9,28) = 0.238; F = 9.91; partial-eta-squared = 0.761; p = 0.00000119)
Previous findings highlight the role of several components, at different stages of sexual response, which all tend to rely on one or more brain regions[6] Other studies have investigated functional connectivity and relied on the use of data derived from resting state or the presentation of visual stimuli of longer d uration[30,31,32,33]
Summary
Several studies highlighted the role of insula on several functions and in sexual behavior. Georgiadis and Kringelbach[9] proposed that sexual response in men involves a three-stage -cycle that depends on: wanting, liking, and inhibition[10] Each of these stages is related to the function of several brain regions. “Posterior-To-Anterior” way, with the somatosensory elaboration of a stimulus in the posterior region promoting the emotional evaluation and integration in the anterior portion of the insula[13] This within-insula connectivity is considered to be relevant to sexual response[10]. Tactile stimulation of the penis increased cerebral blood flow in the right posterior insula and in the adjacent secondary somatosensory cortex[18] This role was confirmed in studies using visual sexual stimuli[3,16,19]. According to Stoleru[6], the posterior insula is involved in the appraisal of sexual relevant stimuli
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