Abstract
Gonadal hormones contribute to the sexual differentiation of brain and behavior throughout the lifespan, from initial neural patterning to “activation” of adult circuits. Sexual behavior is ...an ideal system in which to investigate the mechanisms underlying hormonal activation of neural circuits. Sexual behavior is a hormonally regulated, innate social behavior found across species. Although both sexes seek out and engage in sexual behavior, the specific actions involved in mating are sexually dimorphic. Thus, the neural circuits mediating sexual motivation and behavior in males and females are overlapping yet distinct. Furthermore, sexual behavior is strongly dependent on circulating gonadal hormones in both sexes. There has been significant recent progress on elucidating how gonadal hormones modulate physiological properties within sexual behavior circuits with consequences for behavior. Therefore, in this mini-review we review the neural circuits of male and female sexual motivation and behavior, from initial sensory detection of pheromones to the extended amygdala and on to medial hypothalamic nuclei and reward systems. We also discuss how gonadal hormones impact the physiology and functioning of each node within these circuits. By better understanding the myriad of ways in which gonadal hormones impact sexual behavior circuits, we can gain a richer and more complete appreciation for the neural substrates of complex behavior.
Discussions about sexual health are uncommon in clinical encounters, despite the sexual dysfunction associated with many common health conditions. Understanding of the importance of sexual health and ...sexual satisfaction in U.S. adults is limited.
To provide epidemiologic data on the importance of sexual health for quality of life and people's satisfaction with their sex lives and to examine how each is associated with demographic and health factors.
Data are from a cross-sectional self-report questionnaire from a sample of 3,515 English-speaking U.S. adults recruited from an online panel that uses address-based probability sampling.
We report ratings of importance of sexual health to quality of life (single item with five-point response) and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Satisfaction With Sex Life score (five items, each with five-point responses, scores centered on the U.S. mean).
High importance of sexual health to quality of life was reported by 62.2% of men (95% CI = 59.4-65.0) and 42.8% of women (95% CI = 39.6-46.1, P < .001). Importance of sexual health varied by sex, age, sexual activity status, and general self-rated health. For the 55% of men and 45% of women who reported sexual activity in the previous 30 days, satisfaction with sex life differed by sex, age, race-ethnicity (among men only), and health. Men and women in excellent health had significantly higher satisfaction than participants in fair or poor health. Women with hypertension reported significantly lower satisfaction (especially younger women), as did men with depression or anxiety (especially younger men).
In this large study of U.S. adults' ratings of the importance of sexual health and satisfaction with sex life, sexual health was a highly important aspect of quality of life for many participants, including participants in poor health. Moreover, participants in poorer health reported lower sexual satisfaction. Accordingly, sexual health should be a routine part of clinicians' assessments of their patients. Health care systems that state a commitment to improving patients' overall health must have resources in place to address sexual concerns. These resources should be available for all patients across the lifespan.
The Real Chimpanzee encapsulates the fascinating behaviour of wild chimpanzees and discusses the differences observed in different populations across the species, and across the many levels of their ...social behaviour. It explains why sex competition and predation pressures in a forest chimpanzee population made the females of the group highly social and gave the males a high level of within-group solidarity, making them very xenophobic towards outsiders. Love is what makes war possible. Christophe Boesch brings back to the table the debate over ecological pressures and social organization, and the influence they have over issues such as the evolution of warfare, co-operation, altruism and the position of females. Written in an accessible style for a general audience as well as for undergraduate and graduate students, he presents insightful views to give readers the background information to understand the struggle for survival of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, and through this to find some keys to the ever-so-intriguing question of what makes us human.
The Trinidadian guppy ( Poecilia reticulata ) is well known to biologists and home aquarium enthusiasts alike. Scientists have studied guppies for most of the twentieth century. Some of the most ...intensive recent research has been conducted by behavioral ecologists, who have found that the guppy mating system makes guppies especially useful in the study of sexual selection and mate choice. By observing guppy behavior in aquaria, researchers hope to obtain new insights into how selection operates in natural populations. Here Anne Houde summarizes and synthesizes the scientific work done to date, relates the empirical findings on guppies to current themes in sexual selection theory, and suggests new directions for future research. This book describes the sexual behavior of guppies and examines how mate choice by females leads to the evolution of the conspicuous colors and the courtship displays for which guppies are widely recognized. The author shows that female guppies prefer males with bright color patterns, especially those with orange spots, and that the mating preferences of females lead to sexual selection on both color patterns and courtship displays of males. Houde's work addresses a number of areas that are of interest in sexual selection, including the remarkable degree of plasticity and evolutionary lability of sexual behavior in guppies, geographic variation in mating preferences, possible mechanisms for the evolution of female mating preferences, and the role of sexual selection in speciation. In conclusion, the author explores the implications of her findings for behavioral ecologists who study sexual selection in other species.
A philosophical exploration of female submission, using insights from feminist thinkers—especially Simone de Beauvoir—to reveal the complexities of women's reality and lived experience What role do ...women play in the perpetuation of patriarchy? On the one hand, popular media urges women to be independent, outspoken, and career-minded. Yet, this same media glorifies a specific, sometimes voluntary, female submissiveness as a source of satisfaction. In philosophy, even less has been said on why women submit to men and the discussion has been equally contradictory—submission has traditionally been considered a vice or pathology, but female submission has been valorized as innate to women's nature. Is there a way to explore female submission in all of its complexity—not denying its appeal in certain instances, and not buying into an antifeminist, sexist, or misogynistic perspective? We Are Not Born Submissive offers the first in-depth philosophical exploration of female submission, focusing on the thinking of Simone de Beauvoir, and more recent work in feminist philosophy, epistemology, and political theory. Manon Garcia argues that to comprehend female submission, we must invert how we examine power and see it from the woman's point of view. Historically, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and even some radical feminists have conflated femininity and submission. Garcia demonstrates that only through the lens of women's lived experiences—their economic, social, and political situations—and how women adapt their preferences to maintain their own well-being, can we understand the ways in which gender hierarchies in society shape women's experiences. Ultimately, she asserts that women do not actively choose submission. Rather, they consent to—and sometimes take pleasure in—what is prescribed to them through social norms within a patriarchy.Moving beyond the simplistic binary of natural destiny or moral vice, We Are Not Born Submissive takes a sophisticated look at how female submissiveness can be explained.
This book provides an authoritative and comprehensive synthesis of current research on the evolution and physiological control of sexual behaviour in the primates — prosimians, monkeys, apes, and ...human beings. This new edition has been fully updated and greatly expanded throughout to incorporate a decade of new research findings. It maintains the depth and scientific rigour of the first edition, and includes a new chapter on human sexuality, written from a comparative perspective.
Americans remain deeply ambivalent about teenage sexuality. Many presume that such uneasiness is rooted in religion. This book tackles such questions as: how exactly does religion contribute to the ...formation of teenagers' sexual values and actions? What difference, if any, does religion make in adolescents' sexual attitudes and behaviors? Are abstinence pledges effective? Who expresses regrets about their sexual activity and why? The book combines analyses of three national surveys with stories drawn from interviews with over 250 teenagers across America. It reviews how young people learn, and what they know about sex from their parents, schools, peers, and other sources. It examines what experiences teens profess to have had, and how they make sense of these experiences in light of their own identities as religious, moral, and responsible persons. The author's analysis discovers that religion can and does matter. However, the analysis finds that religious claims are often swamped by other compelling sexual scripts. Particularly interesting is the emergence of what the author calls a “new middle class sexual morality”, which has little to do with a desire for virginity but nevertheless shuns intercourse in order to avoid risks associated with pregnancy and STDs. And strikingly, evangelical teens aren't less sexually active than their non-evangelical counterparts, they just tend to feel guiltier about it. In fact, the analysis finds that few religious teens have internalized or are even able to articulate the sexual ethic taught by their denominations. The only-and largely ineffective-sexual message most religious teens are getting is: “don't do it until you're married”. Ultimately, the author concludes, religion may influence adolescent sexual behavior, but it rarely motivates sexual decision making.
In early 2020, the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) spread across the United States and mitigation measures drastically affected the daily lives of Americans. In this study, we assessed the ...association between COVID-related relationship conflict and changes in intimate and sexual behaviors and experiences. Using data from an online nationally representative probability survey of 1,010 American adults in April 2020, we estimated the impact of coronavirus-related relationship conflict on changes in intimate and sexual behaviors among those in any type of romantic or sexual relationship (N
weighted
=742). Further, we assessed the association between conflict and experience of orgasm and feeling emotionally close to partner. Among individuals in relationships, 34% reported some degree of conflict with their romantic partners due to the spread of COVID-19 and its related restrictions. Those experiencing frequent coronavirus-related conflict with their partner were significantly more likely to report decreased frequency of several solo and partnered intimate and sexual behaviors compared to those not experiencing any such conflict, exhibiting a dose-response trend among partnered sexual behaviors. Since the spread of coronavirus and associated social distancing measures in the United States, Americans have experienced escalations in conflict in their romantic partnerships, which was associated with changes to their intimate and sexual lives.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this innovative celebration of diversity and affirmation of individuality in animals and humans, Joan Roughgarden challenges accepted wisdom about gender identity and sexual orientation. A ...distinguished evolutionary biologist, Roughgarden takes on the medical establishment, the Bible, social science--and even Darwin himself. She leads the reader through a fascinating discussion of diversity in gender and sexuality among fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, including primates. Evolution's Rainbow explains how this diversity develops from the action of genes and hormones and how people come to differ from each other in all aspects of body and behavior. Roughgarden reconstructs primary science in light of feminist, gay, and transgender criticism and redefines our understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality. Witty, playful, and daring, this book will revolutionize our understanding of sexuality. Roughgarden argues that principal elements of Darwinian sexual selection theory are false and suggests a new theory that emphasizes social inclusion and control of access to resources and mating opportunity. She disputes a range of scientific and medical concepts, including Wilson's genetic determinism of behavior, evolutionary psychology, the existence of a gay gene, the role of parenting in determining gender identity, and Dawkins's "selfish gene" as the driver of natural selection. She dares social science to respect the agency and rationality of diverse people; shows that many cultures across the world and throughout history accommodate people we label today as lesbian, gay, and transgendered; and calls on the Christian religion to acknowledge the Bible's many passages endorsing diversity in gender and sexuality. Evolution's Rainbow concludes with bold recommendations for improving education in biology, psychology, and medicine; for
democratizing genetic engineering and medical practice; and for building a public monument to affirm diversity as one of our nation's defining principles.