Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Correspondence should be addressed to Timm B. E-mail: timm. Sexual behavior involves motivational processes. Findings from both animal models and neuroimaging in humans suggest that the recruitment of neural motor networks is an integral part of the sexual response.
However, no study so far has directly linked sexual motivation to physiologically measurable changes in cerebral motor systems in humans. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation in hetero- and homosexual men, we here show that sexual motivation modulates cortical excitability.
The reflection of sexual motivation in motor cortex excitability provides evidence for motor preparation processes in sexual behavior in humans. Moreover, such interrelationship links theoretical models and previous neuroimaging findings of sexual behavior. Keywords: sexual motivation, cortical excitability, transcranial magnetic stimulation, motor evoked potentials. Sexual behavior involves a state of sexual excitement induced by preferred sexual stimuli.
This neurobehavioral model is commensurate with an information processing model that distinguishes between automatic, pre-attentive stages of stimulus appraisal and subsequent emotional and motivational states Janssen et al.
A comprehensive theoretical framework for sexual motivation, arousal and behavior integrates biological and cognitive-emotional aspects by focusing on the pathway between incentive and response Toates, It follows incentive motivation theories and highlights that sexual motivation emerges from an interaction of external incentives and internal states Singer and Toates, In this regard, it has also been noted that the functional neuroanatomy of sex is remarkably similar to that of other incentives such as food Georgiadis and Kringelbach, Moreover, animal research suggests that generalized brain arousal characterized by increased motor activity and responsivity to sensory stimuli impacts sexual behavior Weil et al.
