Abstract
Sex remains highly controversial and is a major driving force for the human brain [1]. The brain is the master seat control for all sexual behaviour. Human beings are sexual through a better part of their entire lives [1]. Sexuality of humans manifests in different ways with increasing age. Despite the controversies that surround human sex, for a majority of us, sex is a highly pleasurable process [2]. In the boarder context things, good sexual health definitely goes hand in hand with general wellness and good health [2]. But why engage in sex in the first place? Sex is definitely more wasteful compared to asexual modalities of reproduction [3]. Moreover sex and sexual reproduction are far less efficient in propagating a species as compared to asexual reproduction [3]. The exact answer however has eluded researchers for years despite excellent studies on animal sexual behaviour.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
DeLamater J, Friedrich WN. Human sexual development. J Sex Res. 2002;39(1):10–4.
Jannini EA, Fisher WA, Bitzer J, McMahon CG. Is sex just fun? How sexual activity improves health. J Sex Med. 2009;6:2640–8.
Morran LT, Schmidt OG, Gelarden IA, Parris RC II, Lively CM. Running with the red queen: host–parasite coevolution selects for biparental sex. Science. 2011;333:216–8.
Meston CM, Buss DM. Why humans have sex. Arch Sex Behav. 2007;36:477–507.
Meston CM, Hamilton LD, Harte CB. Sexual motivation in women as a function of age. J Sex Med. 2009;6:3305–19.
Georgiadis JR, Kringelbach ML. The human sexual response cycle: brain imaging evidence linking sex to other pleasures. Prog Neurobiol. 2012;98(1):49–81.
Pfaus JG, Kippin TE, Coria-Avila G. What can animal models tell us about human sexual response? Ann Rev Sex Res. 2003;14(1):1–63.
Feiring C, Cleland CM, Simon VA. Abuse-specific self-schemas and self functioning: a prospective study of sexually abused youth. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2010;39:35–50.
Ferretti A, Caulo M, Del Gratta C, Di Matteo R, Merla A, Montorsi F, Pizzella V, Pompa P, Rigatti P, Rossini PM, Salonia A, Tartaro A, Romani GL. Dynamics of male sexual arousal: distinct components of brain activation revealed by fMRI. NeuroImage. 2005;26:1086–96.
Rizzolatti G, Craighero L. The mirror-neuron system. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2004;27:169–92.
Moulier V, Mouras H, Pelegrini-Issac M, Glutron D, Rouxel R, Grandjean B, Bittoun J, Stoleru S. Neuroanatomical correlates of penile erection evoked by photographic stimuli in human males. NeuroImage. 2006;33:689–99.
Mouras H, Stoleru S, Moulier V, Pelegrini-Issac M, Rouxel R, Grandjean B, Glutron D, Bittoun J. Activation of mirror-neuron system by erotic video clips predicts degree of induced erection: an fMRI study. NeuroImage. 2008;42:1142–50.
Ponseti J, Bosinski HA, Wolff S, Peller M, Jansen O, Mehdorn HM, Buchel C, Siebner HR. A functional endophenotype for sexual orientation in humans. NeuroImage. 2006;33:825–33.
Martinson FM. The sexual life of children. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey; 1994.
Bull JJ. Evolution of sex determining mechanisms. Menlo Park: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company; 1983.
Masters WH, Johnson VE. Human sexual response. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Company; 1966.
Robinson P. The modernization of sex. New York: Harper and Row; 1976.
Beach FA. Characteristics of masculine “sex drive”. In: Jones MR, editor. Nebraska symposium on motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press; 1956. p. 1–32.
Kinsey AC, Pomeroy WB, Martln CE, Gebhard PH. Sexual behavior in the human female. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co; 1953.
Hackett G. The use of questionnaires to assess sexual function. Trends Urol Mens Health. 2017;8(1):17–20.
Basson R. Human sex-response cycles. J Sex Marital Ther. 2001;27:33–43.
Janssen E, Everaerd W, Spiering M, et al. Automatic processes and the appraisal of sexual stimuli: toward an information processing model of sexual arousal. J Sex Res. 2000;37:8–23.
Laan E, van Driel EM, van Lunsen RHW. Genital responsiveness in healthy women with and without sexual arousal disorder. J Sex Med. 2008;5:1424–35.
Goldhammer DL, McCabe MP. A qualitative exploration of the meaning and experience of sexual desire among partnered women. Can J Hum Sex. 2011;20(1–2):19–34.
Vannier SA, O’Sullivan LF. Sex without desire: characteristics of occasions of sexual compliance in young adults’ committed relationships. J Sex Res. 2010;47:429–39.
Stole’ru S, Fonteille V, Corne’lis C, et al. Functional neuroimaging studies of sexual arousal and orgasm in healthy men and women: a review and meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2012;36:1481–509.
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). San Francisco: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2013. p. 22.
King M, Holt V, Nazareth I. Women’s view of their sexual difficulties: agreement and disagreement for the clinical diagnoses. Arch Sex Behav. 2007;36:281–8.
Levin RJ. The human sexual response cycle. In: The textbook of clinical sexual medicine. Cham: Springer; 2017. p. 39–51.
Havermans RC. How to tell where ‘liking’ ends and ‘wanting’ begins. Appetite. 2012;58:252–5.
Smith KS, Berridge KC, Aldridge JW. Disentangling pleasure from incentive salience and learning signals in brain reward circuitry. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011;108:E255–64.
Mostafa T, El Khouly G, Hassan A. Pheromones in sex and reproduction: do they have a role in humans? J Adv Res. 2012;3:1–9.
Loken LS, Wessberg J, Morrison I, McGlone F, Olausson H. Coding of pleasant touch by unmyelinated afferents in humans. Nat Neurosci. 2009;12:547–8.
Michels L, Mehnert U, Boy S, Schurch B, Kollias S. The somatosensory representation of the human clitoris: an fMRI study. NeuroImage. 2010;49:177–84.
Georgiadis JR, Reinders AA, Paans AM, Renken R, Kortekaas R. Men versus women on sexual brain function: prominent differences during tactile genital stimulation but not during orgasm. Hum Brain Mapp. 2009;30:3089–101.
Miyagawa Y, Tsujimura A, Fujita K, Matsuoka Y, Takahashi T, Takao T, Takada S, Matsumiya K, Osaki Y, Takasawa M, Oku N, Hatazawa J, Kaneko S, Okuyama A. Differential brain processing of audiovisual sexual stimuli in men: comparative positron emission tomography study of the initiation and maintenance of penile erection during sexual arousal. NeuroImage. 2007;36:830–42.
Ghazanfar AA, Santos LR. Primate brains in the wild: the sensory bases for social interactions. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2004;5:603–16.
Childress AR, Ehrman RN, Wang Z, Li Y, Sciortino N, Hakun J, Jens W, Suh J, Listerud J, Marquez K, Franklin T, Langleben D, Detre J, O’Brien CP. Prelude to passion: limbic activation by unseen drug and sexual cues. PLoS One. 2008;3:e1506.
Rupp HA, Wallen K. Sex differences in response to visual sexual stimuli: a review. Arch Sex Behav. 2008;37:206–18.
Caspers S, Zilles K, Laird AR, Eickhoff SB. ALE meta-analysis of action observation and imitation in the human brain. NeuroImage. 2010;50:1148–67.
Buhler M, Vollstadt-Klein S, Klemen J, Smolka MN. Does erotic stimulus presentation design affect brain activation patterns? Event-related vs blocked fMRI designs. Behav Brain Funct. 2008;4:30.
Klucken T, Schweckendiek J, Merz CJ, Tabbert K, Walter B, Kagerer S, Vaitl D, Stark R. Neural activations of the acquisition of conditioned sexual arousal: effects of contingency awareness and sex. J Sex Med. 2009;6:3071–85.
Savic I, Lindstrom P. PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008;105:9403–8.
Clayton AH, Clavet GJ, McGarvey EL, Warnock JK, Weiss K. Assessment of sexual functioning during the menstrual cycle. J Sex Marital Ther. 1999;25:281–91.
Mass R, Holldorfer M, Moll B, Bauer R, Wolf K. Why we haven’t died out yet: changes in women’s mimic reactions to visual erotic stimuli during their menstrual cycles. Horm Behav. 2009;55:267–71.
Chivers ML, Seto MC, Blanchard R. Gender and sexual orientation differences in sexual response to sexual activities versus gender of actors in sexual films. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2007;93:1108–21.
Graham CA. The DSM diagnostic criteria for female sexual arousal disorder. Arch Sex Behav. 2010;39(2):240–55.
Dennerstein L, Lehert P, Guthrie J. The effects of the menopausal transition and biopsychosocial factors on well-being. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2002;5:15–22.
Mah K, Binik YM. The nature of human orgasm: a critical review of major trends. Clin Psychol Rev. 2001;21:823–56.
Warneke LB. A case of temporal lobe epilepsy with an orgasmic component. Can Psychiatr Assoc J. 1976;21(5):319–24.
Georgiadis JR, Kortekaas R, Kuipers R, Nieuwenburg A, Pruim J, Reinders AATS, Holstege G. Regional cerebral blood flow changes associated with clitorally induced orgasm in healthy women. Eur J Neurosci. 2006;24:3305–16.
Georgiadis JR, Reinders AA, van der Graaf FH, Paans AM, Kortekaas R. Brain activation during human male ejaculation revisited. Neuroreport. 2007;18:553–7.
Levin RJ. Revisiting post-ejaculation refractory time-what we know and what we do not know in males and in females. J Sex Med. 2009;6:2376–89.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Khan, S.D., Gunasekaran, K. (2019). The Human Sexual Response. In: Gunasekaran, K., Khan, S. (eds) Sexual Medicine . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1226-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1226-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1225-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1226-7
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)