TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Visual sexual stimulation and erection, a brief review with new fMRI data
JO  - Current medicinal chemistry
A1  - Wu, Sharon L.
A1  - Chow, Maggie Sm
A1  - Jiang, Y. L.
A1  - Yang, Jingjin
A1  - Zhou, Hao
A1  - Yew, David T.
SP  - 1139
EP  - 1146
VL  - 24
IS  - 11
N2  - This review examines brain sites involved in sexual stimulation. New data on brain activation sites in individuals having erections concomitant with visual erotic stimulation was documented. The activation was chiefly at the midbrain around the cerebral peduncle, and in the pons centering on the tegmentum, they are indicated by blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) images captured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The cerebellum and inferior temporal lobe were activated more extensively in individuals viewing pornographic movie with a concomitant erection than those without. Similarly, individuals with erection had activation in the midbrain and pons, while drug addicts had neither erections nor any of these brainstem active sites. From our observation in the new data, we deduced three possible transmitters might be involved in erection: i) cholinergic neurons forming descending pathways and associated with motor activity ii) gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), directly or indirectly via decreasing pathways, modulating autonomic vascular responses in the penile vasculature causing the filling of blood iii) GABA decreases to stimulate dopamine increase in ventral tegmentum of the brain, leading to euphoric responses.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0929-8673
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -