Attentional Mechanisms Underlying Gendered Sexual Response

性是人性的一个基本方面。当代的性行为理论假设男性和女性的性反应相似；然而，大量的经验证据表明，这一假设是不正确的。在男性和女性的性反应模式中，有两个复制得很好但令人困惑的差异。首先，与男性相比，女性的性反应被更广泛的性刺激所激活。第二，生理和心理唤醒之间的连贯性在女性中比男性弱得多，女性几乎表现出精神和身体的脱节。尽管这些性别差异在性结果上是根深蒂固的，但我们缺乏对这些不同模式产生的机制的理解。理论模型将注意力定位为性反应的关键机制，但注意过程和性反应之间的直接联系从未得到实证检验。拟议的研究计划的目的是通过首次研究注意力如何通过性别/性镜头对性反应产生影响来填补这一关键空白。最重要的假设是，男性和女性对性刺激的关注不同，这导致了不同的性反应模式。为了测试这一点，我们将把男性和女性带入实验室，客观地测量他们的注意力，并检查注意力对生理和心理上的性唤醒的影响。我们还将调查由性暗示引起的自动注意偏向是否可以改变，以及这是如何影响性反应的。另一个目标是通过研究一种新的机制-注意力不集中-及其与性反应的联系来完善现有的理论模型。所创造的知识将有助于发展一种基于经验的性反应模型，该模型解释性别/性，最终更好地反映男性和女性对其性行为的体验。这项研究延续了加拿大在性科学方面的卓越传统，为HQP提供了在心理生理学和基于性别和性别的数据分析(SGBA+)方面接受培训的独特机会。这些技能在心理学、神经科学、生理学和医学等多个科学领域有着广泛的应用。了解性反应背后的机制将被用来产生经验性反应的模型，这些模型将对性学研究人员产生直接影响，包括那些研究其他与性相关的现象的人，如性取向以及性功能问题的评估和治疗。鉴于性行为在人们生活中的中心地位，这项工作的影响将延伸到所有加拿大男性和女性。对性别性行为的准确经验知识也将有助于解决社会上对男性和女性性行为的无数误解。

Sexuality is a fundamental aspect of human nature. Contemporary theories of sexuality assume that men and women are similar in their sexual response; however, a wealth of empirical evidence suggests that this assumption is incorrect. There are two well-replicated, but perplexing, differences in men's and women's sexual response patterns. The first is that compared to men, women's sexual response is activated by a much broader array of sexual stimuli. The second being that the strength of coherence between physiological and psychological arousal is much weaker among women than men, with women exhibiting almost a mind-body disconnect. Although these gender differences in sexual outcomes are well-established, we lack understanding of the mechanisms underlying how these different patterns arise. Theoretical models situate attention as a key mechanism for sexual response, yet direct links between attentional processes and sexual response have never been examined empirically. The aim of the proposed research program is to fill this critical gap by examining for the first time how attention exerts its effects on sexual response using a gender/sex lens. The overarching hypothesis is that men and women differ in their attention to sexual stimuli contributing to different patterns of sexual response. To test this, we will bring men and women into the lab and objectively measure their attention, as well as examine the effect of attention on physiological and psychological sexual arousal. We will also investigate whether or not automatic attentional biases elicited by sexual cues can be modified, and how this then impacts sexual response. An additional objective is to refine existing theoretical models by examining a new mechanism-inattention-and its link with sexual response. Together the knowledge created will contribute to the development of an empirically-based model of sexual response that accounts for gender/sex, that ultimately better reflects men's and women's experiences of their sexuality. This research continues a tradition of excellence in sexual science in Canada, providing unique opportunities for HQP to be trained in psychophysiology and sex- and gender-based data analysis (SGBA+). These skills have broad applications in multiple areas of science including psychology, neuroscience, physiology, and medicine. Understanding the mechanisms underlying sexual response will be used to generate empirically-supported models of sexual response that will have direct implications for researchers in sexuality, including those examining other sexually-related phenomena, such as sexual orientation and the assessment and treatment of sexual function problems. Given the centrality of sexuality to people's lives, the impact of this work will extend to all Canadian men and women. Accurate empirical knowledge about gendered sexuality will also help address myriad societal misconceptions about men's and women's sexualities.