TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessment of cerebrocortical areas associated with sexual arousal in depressive women using functional MR imaging
AU - Yang, Jong Chul
AU - Park, Kwangsung
AU - Eun, Sung Jong
AU - Lee, Moo Suk
AU - Yoon, Jin Sang
AU - Shin, Il Seon
AU - Kim, Yong Ku
AU - Chung, Tae Woong
AU - Kang, Heoung Keun
AU - Jeong, Gwang Woo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant (R01-2004-000-10912-0) of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. This study was partially supported by grants of the Korea Health 21 R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, and the RRC (Biohousing Research Institute), Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, Republic of Korea (A050174).
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - Introduction. Mental illness is closely related with sexual dysfunction. A number of investigators have reported that depressive women have difficulties in sexual arousal. Aim. The purpose of this study was to compare the cerebrocortical regions associated with sexual arousal between the healthy and depressive women using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) technique. Methods. Together with nine healthy women (mean age: 40.3), seven depressive women (mean age: 41.7 years, mean Beck Depression Inventory: 35.6, mean Hamilton Rating Scale Depression-17: 34.9) underwent fMRI examinations using a 1.5T MR scanner (Signa Horizon; GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI, USA). The fMRI data were obtained from seven oblique planes using gradient-echo EPI. Sexual stimulation paradigm began with a 1-minute rest and then 4-minute stimulation using an erotic video film. The brain activation maps and their resulting quantification were analyzed by the statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) program. The number of pixels activated by each task was used as brain activity, where the significance of the differences was evaluated by using independent t -test. Main Outcome Measures. We measured brain activation areas using BOLD-based fMRI with visual sexual stimulation in healthy volunteers and depressive patients. Results. Healthy women were significantly (P < 0.05) activated in the regions of middle occipital gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, insula, hypothalamus, septal area, anterior cingulate gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, thalamus, and amygdala by erotic visual stimulation. In comparison with the healthy women, the depressive women gave lower activity, especially in the brain regions of hypothalamus (55.5:3.0), septal area (49.6:8.6), anterior cingulate gyrus (23.5:11.0), and parahippocampal gyrus (18.2:5.8). Conclusions. This preliminary study performed by fMRI gives valuable information on differentiation of the activated cerebral regions associated with visually evoked sexual arousal between healthy and depressive women. In addition, these findings might be useful to understand neural mechanisms for female sexual dysfunction in depressive women.
AB - Introduction. Mental illness is closely related with sexual dysfunction. A number of investigators have reported that depressive women have difficulties in sexual arousal. Aim. The purpose of this study was to compare the cerebrocortical regions associated with sexual arousal between the healthy and depressive women using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) technique. Methods. Together with nine healthy women (mean age: 40.3), seven depressive women (mean age: 41.7 years, mean Beck Depression Inventory: 35.6, mean Hamilton Rating Scale Depression-17: 34.9) underwent fMRI examinations using a 1.5T MR scanner (Signa Horizon; GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI, USA). The fMRI data were obtained from seven oblique planes using gradient-echo EPI. Sexual stimulation paradigm began with a 1-minute rest and then 4-minute stimulation using an erotic video film. The brain activation maps and their resulting quantification were analyzed by the statistical parametric mapping (SPM99) program. The number of pixels activated by each task was used as brain activity, where the significance of the differences was evaluated by using independent t -test. Main Outcome Measures. We measured brain activation areas using BOLD-based fMRI with visual sexual stimulation in healthy volunteers and depressive patients. Results. Healthy women were significantly (P < 0.05) activated in the regions of middle occipital gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, insula, hypothalamus, septal area, anterior cingulate gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, thalamus, and amygdala by erotic visual stimulation. In comparison with the healthy women, the depressive women gave lower activity, especially in the brain regions of hypothalamus (55.5:3.0), septal area (49.6:8.6), anterior cingulate gyrus (23.5:11.0), and parahippocampal gyrus (18.2:5.8). Conclusions. This preliminary study performed by fMRI gives valuable information on differentiation of the activated cerebral regions associated with visually evoked sexual arousal between healthy and depressive women. In addition, these findings might be useful to understand neural mechanisms for female sexual dysfunction in depressive women.
KW - Depression
KW - Female sexual arousal
KW - Functional MRI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=40349115926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2007.00737.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2007.00737.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 18194182
AN - SCOPUS:40349115926
VL - 5
SP - 602
EP - 609
JO - Journal of Sexual Medicine
JF - Journal of Sexual Medicine
SN - 1743-6095
IS - 3
ER -
