Affective And Autonomic Responses To Erotic Images: Evidence Of Disgust-Based Mechanisms In Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder

Abstract

Disgust has recently been implicated in the development and maintenance of female sexual dysfunction, yet most empirical studies have been conducted with a sexually healthy sample. The current study contributes to the literature by expanding the application of a disgust model of sexual functioning to a clinically relevant sample of women with low sexual desire/arousal and accompanying sexual distress. Young women (mean age = 19.12 years) with psychometrically defined sexual dysfunction (i.e., female sexual interest/arousal disorder [FSIAD] group) and a healthy control group were compared in their affective (i.e., facial electromyography [EMG] and self-report) and autonomic (i.e., heart rate and electrodermal activity) responses to disgusting, erotic, positive, and neutral images. Significant differences were predicted in responses to erotic images only. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the FSIAD group would display affective and autonomic responses consistent with a disgust response, while responses from the control group would align with a general appetitive response. Results largely supported study hypotheses. The FSIAD group displayed significantly greater negative facial affect, reported more subjective disgust, and recorded greater heart rate deceleration than the control group in response to erotic stimuli. Greater subjective disgust response corresponded with more sexual avoidance behavior. Planned follow-up analyses explored correlates of subjective disgust responses.

Publication Date

9-2-2017

Publication Title

Journal of Sex Research

Volume

54

Issue

7

Number of Pages

877-886

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2016.1252307

Socpus ID

85000925949 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85000925949

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