Functional and Dysfunctional Sexual Behavior - A Synthesis of Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology

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Functional and Dysfunctional Sexual Behavior

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 On the purpose of sex and some notes on scientific explanations

1 On the definition of sexual behavior

2 The relationship between biological function and the causation of behavior

2.1 Teleology

2.2 Cause–effect relationships

3 The coincidence between Darwinian and Judæo-Christian views on human sexual behavior

3.1 The biological analysis of sexual behavior in the context of evolution and natural selection

3.2 Saint Augustine and sex: the poena reciproca and the role of love

4 If sex is not for reproduction, what is it for?

5 The high cost of the imposed association between sexual behavior and reproduction

6 Differences and similarities between sex and other primary needs like food and drink

Chapter 2 An incentive motivational framework and the description of sexual behaviors

1 Sexual motivation: theoretical framework

2 Copulatory behaviors

2.1 On the importance of the distinction between approach behaviors and the execution of copulatory reflexes

2.2 Male copulatory behavior

2.3 Female copulatory behavior

2.4 Copulatory behavior in men and women

2.5 The relationship between sexual desire (motivation) and excitation (arousal)

Chapter 3 The stimulus control of sexual incentive motivation: non-human mammals

1 Introduction

2 Detection of a potential mate and the activation of sexual incentive motivation: behavioral considerations

2.1 The incentive stimulus

2.2 Auditory sexual incentive stimuli in rats and mice

2.3 Conclusions concerning auditory sexual incentive stimuli (ultrasonic vocalizations) in rodents

3 Olfactory sexual incentive stimuli

3.1 The accessory olfactory system

3.2 The main olfactory system

3.3 Other potentially chemosensitive structures in the nose

4 Visual incentive stimuli

5 General conclusion concerning sexual incentive stimuli in non-human animals

Chapter 4 The stimulus control of sexual incentive motivation: the human

1 Introduction

2 Human sexual incentive stimuli: visceral reactions

2.1 General comments

2.2 Endocrine responses to sexual incentives

2.3 Enhanced genital blood flow

3 Human sexual incentive stimuli: approach behaviors

3.1 Visual incentive stimuli

3.2 Chemicals as human sexual incentives

4 Human sexual incentives outside of the laboratory

4.1 General

4.2 Dorothy Tennov's concept of limerence as an approximation to sexual incentive motivation

4.3 Human sexual incentives and social learning

5 An unkind note on sociobiology or evolutionary psychology

Chapter 5 Endocrine control of sexual behavior

1 Males

1.1 The importance of testicular hormones in men

1.2 The importance of testicular hormones in non-human males

1.3 The role of testosterone metabolites in non-human males

1.4 The role of aromatization in men

1.5 Conclusion concerning the role of aromatization

1.6 Studies on knockout mice

1.7 Studies on men with spontaneous gene deletions

1.8 Conclusions concerning the hormonal control of male sexual behavior

2 Females

2.1 The role of ovarian hormones in non-primate female mammals

2.2 The role of ovarian and adrenal hormones in female primates

2.3 Hormones and sexual behavior in women

2.4 Variations in women's sexual behavior during the menstrual cycle

2.5 Changes in women's sexual behavior at menopause

2.6 The role of androgens in women

3 General conclusion

Chapter 6 Neural control of sexual behavior

1 The male

1.1 Introduction

1.2 The medial preoptic area: motivation or execution

1.3 A note on lordosis in male rats and the influence of the medial preoptic area and of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus

1.4 The potential role of the prefrontal cortex

1.5 Effects of other brain lesions on male sexual behavior

1.6 A comment on the importance of lesion size

1.7 Indirect estimations of nervous activity in association with sexual behavior

2 The female

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus

2.3 The preoptic area

2.4 On the importance of other brain sites inferred from studies of copulation-induced brain activation

2.5 Conclusion concerning the neural control of female sexual behavior in non-human mammals

2.6 A reciprocal inhibitory relationship between the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus and the preoptic area: neural circuits forming the basis for the bisexual potential

2.7 Central nervous control of sexual behavior in the human female

3 General conclusion

Chapter 7 Learning and sex: Sexual activity as reinforcement and reward

1 An ultrashort introduction to the principles of learning

2 Habituation of sexual responses

2.1 Studies in non-human mammals

2.2 Studies in humans

2.3 A note on habituation in long-term relationships

3 Sensitization of sexual responses

4 Classical conditioning of sexual responses

4.1 Non-human studies

4.2 Human studies

5 Sexual activity as reinforcement for operant learning

5.1 Studies in non-human mammals

5.2 Studies in humans

6 Social learning of sexual responses

7 Conclusions regarding sexual responses and learning

8 The sexual reward

8.1 The positive affect: behavioral data

8.2 The positive affect: neurotransmitters

9 General conclusion

Chapter 8 Preference for same sex partners: Basic concepts and its occurrence in non-human mammals

1 Concepts

1.1 The concept of preference

1.2 The concept of homosexual behavior: a source of much confusion

1.3 Another confusing concept: sexually dimorphic behaviors

1.4 Preferences for sexual motor patterns

1.5 Beyond dimorphisms and homosexual behaviors

2 Preference for a particular sex: non-human mammals

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Studies in intact mammals

2.3 Search for experimentally induced same-sex preferences

2.4 Endocrine events during puberty and their possible importance for sexual preferences

Chapter 9 Preference for same sex partners in the human

1 The search for a biological foundation for preferences for the same sex

1.1 The homosexual gene

1.2 The homosexual brain

1.3 The homosexual scalp and hand

2 Preference versus orientation: the role of will and other issues

3 Acceptability of same-sex behaviors and the role of willfulness

4 Problems with the use of the concept of homosexuality and the category of homosexual in scientific research

4.1 Uncertainties associated with classification and the notion of stability

4.2 Homosexual behaviors: a lesson from history and some observational data pertinent to the issues of classification and stability

5 Sexual preferences can be explained by incentive motivation theory without any reference to the concept of homosexuality

6 Empirical support for an explanation of same-sex preferences in incentive motivational terms

7 The human is not simply another mammal

8 A note on homosexual identity

Chapter 10 Some comments on the concepts of 'normal' or 'functional' sexual behavior

1 Introduction

2 The notion of normal versus abnormal

3 Sexual function and dysfunction

4 A short note on non-human mammals

Chapter 11 Hypoactive sexual desire disorder

1 Introduction

2 Diagnostic criteria

3 Epidemiology

4 Etiology

4.1 General

4.2 An incentive motivation/learning account of the origin of hypoactive sexual desire disorder

4.3 Some rat data supporting the incentive motivation/learning model and a note on the relationship between desire and motivation

4.4 Potential endocrine causes of hypoactive sexual desire disorder

4.5 Other potential causes

4.6 A curious observation of some consequence

4.7 Conclusion

5 Treatment

5.1 Psychotherapeutic procedures

5.2 Pharmacological treatments

6 General conclusion concerning hypoactive sexual desire disorder

Chapter 12 Hyperactive sexual desire and the paraphilias

1 Introduction

2 Hyperactive sexual desire

2.1 The search for diagnostic criteria

2.2 A proposal for diagnostic criteria

2.3 Epidemiology and etiology

2.4 Treatment

3 The paraphilias

3.1 General

3.2 Exhibitionism

3.3 Fetishism

3.4 Pedophilia

4 General conclusion

Chapter 13 On the omissions

Index

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