Modulators of Gendered Sexual Response

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Sexuality is a fundamental aspect of our human nature. My laboratory is focused on understanding sexual arousal and desire. We do this by measuring people's physical and psychological responses to sexual stimuli, called sexual psychophysiology. Some aspects of sexual arousal are very similar for women and men, such as having a genital response when we see sexual stimuli, and others are profoundly different. For example, we have discovered that women respond sexually to a much broader range of sexual stimuli than men do, a pattern that contradicts prevailing theories about human sexuality and sexual response. We have also shown that, among women, the relationships between physical and psychological aspects of sexual responses are more variable, unlike the strong relationship found in men. Differences like these have also been observed using neuroscience and cognitive science methods as well, suggesting fundamental differences in the ways women and men perceive, experience, and respond to sexual stimuli. Most contemporary theories of sexuality, however, assume that women and men are similar in their sexual responding, an assumption that is wrong. My research program aims to make discoveries that will build new, gender-specific models of sexual response that better characterize the scientific data, and better reflect women's and men's experiences of their sexuality. This will be accomplished by investigating factors that influence gender differences in sexual response. First, we are conducting a series of studies to better understand the cues in sexual stimuli that are associated with women's and men's sexual responses. Second, we are investigating the relationship between cyclical reproductive hormones and patterns of women's sexual response. Last, using electroencephalography, we are assessing neural processes thought to be associated with sexual response. The results of our research have wide-ranging implications for all Canadians. This research continues a tradition of excellence in sexual science in Canada, training highly-qualified personnel in many laboratory techniques with broad applications in many areas of science such as psychology, neuroscience, physiology, and medicine. Understanding the basic operating characteristics of sexual response in women and men will also benefit research examining more complex sexual phenomena that have an impact on us all, such as the development of human sexuality, sexual risk-taking behaviours that expose people to sexually-transmitted infections and sexual assault, and the understanding and treatment of sexual functioning problems.