Check out this news release on a friend/colleague’s fascinating research related to facial preferences, hormones and brain activity. To learn more about The Kinsey Institute, please visit their web site.

News Release
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Hormones and brain activity: Kinsey Institute study sheds light on facial preferences

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 12, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Scientists have long known that women’s preferences for masculine men change throughout their menstrual cycles. A new study from Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute is the first to demonstrate differences in brain activity as women considered masculinized and feminized male faces and whether the person was a potential sexual partner.

The researchers identified regions of the brain that responded more strongly to masculine faces and demonstrated that differences between masculinized and feminized faces appeared strongest when the women were closer to ovulating.

The study, published in an online edition of the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, sheds light on the link between women’s hormone levels and their brain responses to masculinized versus feminized male faces, potentially offering insights into female mate preferences. The current study points towards enhancements of both sensory discrimination and risk processing around ovulation in response to masculine faces as possible mediators of women’s mate preferences.

"One area of the brain in which we observed a difference in activation in response to masculinized versus feminized faces — specifically during the follicular phase — was the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a region involved in decision-making and the evaluation of potential reward and risk," said neuroscientist Heather Rupp, research fellow at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. "Activation in this region has been previously reported to correlate with ‘high risk’ nonsocial choices, specifically monetary risk, so it is interesting that it is observed to be more active in response to masculinized male faces, who may be both riskier but more rewarding to women."

Previous studies have shown that women’s sexual preference for facial characteristics vary depending on their menstrual phase. These fluctuating preferences are thought to reflect evolutionarily founded changes in women’s reproductive priorities. Around the time of ovulation women prefer more masculinized faces — faces with features that indicate high levels of testosterone. These facial cues predict high genetic quality in the male because only such males can afford the immune-compromising effects of testosterone. Testosterone may be costly for the males’ mates as well because high testosterone levels also are associated with high rates of offspring abandonment.

Around the time of ovulation, a female’s preference apparently shifts from avoiding negligent parenting to acquiring the best genes for her offspring. At other points during the cycle, women will prefer more feminized male faces, as they might signal a higher willingness of the males to invest in offspring.

Rupp and her team set out to explore the link between hormone levels and brain responses to masculinized versus feminized male faces. Pictures of 56 male faces were masculinized and feminized using standard computer-morphing software. Twelve heterosexual women, averaging about 25 years old, were tested during the follicular phase, which is closer to ovulation and higher fertility time, and the luteal phases of their menstrual cycles. Before each test session their blood was collected for hormone analyses. While brain activity was measured using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, women viewed the masculinized and feminized male faces, indicating their interest in the man depicted as a potential sexual partner.

Researchers found differences in brain regions related to face perception, decision making and reward processing that responded more strongly to masculinized than feminized faces, suggesting that "neural activation in response to face stimuli is sensitive to facial masculinization, even in the absence of differences in subjective ratings." Differences between masculinized and feminized faces appeared strongest during the follicular phase, closer to ovulation.

The article appears in the journal’s online edition and will appear in print in January. For a copy of the study, contact newsroom@elsevier.com.

Co-authors include Thomas W. James, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Ellen D. Ketterson, Department of Biology; Dale R. Sengelaub, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences; Erick Janssen, Kinsey Institute; Julia R. Heiman, Kinsey Institute and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

The study was supported by National Institutes of Health.

Rupp can be reached at 812-856-0009 and hrupp@indiana.edu. For additional assistance, contact Jennifer Bass at 812-855-7686 or jbass@indiana.edu.

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As our recent study related to breast cancer and sexuality has been described on various web sites already, it’s about time that I posted information about this study - that we just published in the scientific journal Cancer Nursing this past week. You can read the IU press release on the IU site or view it after the jump.

(more…)

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Regular MSP readers may remember a couple of trips I’ve taken to San Juan, Puerto Rico this year. Lest you think I was just sunning myself and/or enjoying meals at what is perhaps one of my favorite restaurants, Marmalade, rest assured that I was working. Announced recently is our research team and School’s partnership with the University of Puerto Rico - the Partnership for Sexual Health Promotion. You can read the full press release from School of HPER at Indiana University on the IU web site. We are absolutely thrilled to be working with such talented and committed colleagues in Puerto Rico. Stay tuned in the coming months for more information about some of our ongoing research and education work.

[Image via our press release, on this site.]

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Oh my! Chromosomal testing for "suspected males" posing as female… possible genital/gyn exams… and more. It’s that time again, when the Olympics brings sex and gender issues under intense scrutiny. You can read the full New York Times article here.

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The other day, my primary research partner and I were interviewed for WFHB radio in Bloomington, Indiana. Deb Kent conducted the interview for her radio show, Interchange. It was sooooo much fun even though we were tired after a 12 hour work day. Have a listen here:

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So much for journalistic embargoes, but then again I guess it is almost (or already?) Thursday in India. The last I heard, this recent study that will be published shortly in the British Medical Journal was embargoed until Thursday… meaning that journalists aren’t supposed to talk about it until then. Which I won’t. But I will give you the link if you want to read the Hindustan Times’ reporting of it. And then we can talk about the study really does and does not say or mean.

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This was a recent iGoogle quote:

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
  - Aldous Huxley

But what if, like me and my colleagues, one is intellectual about sex? In other words, what if the thing that is "as interesting" as having sex is studying sex, talking about sex and/or writing about sex? When I learned that the vagina sits at roughly the same angle in most pre-menopausal women, I was thrilled beyond belief (I so enjoy learning about vaginas). Then there was the time that I learned about the average duration of contractions during male and female orgasm… or the days I have spent reading studies about prolactin release at the time of orgasm (which is related to feelings of satiation and contentment after sex, it seems) or oxytocin (the so-called "pair bonding hormone" which, with its release, is supposed to help human animals, like other animals, bond/feel closer). And, years ago, when I first learned about masturbation exercises to help men to improve their ejaculatory control and last longer during sex? It was, like, whoa there, tiger.

These have all been such exciting times for me! So what does that make me, aside from a total sex nerd?

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Today I read this quote on my iGoogle page: "Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination"   - Bertrand Russell

Nice. I think it applies to sex research (or any kind of research) as it suggests that though there are limits on what we can and cannot learn or know at any given moment in time, there should be no limits on our vision, creativity or the ways in which we dream of or actually experience something. We don’t understand orgasms, arousal, desire (or the lack of desire), sexual orientation, pleasure or attraction perfectly. There are clear limits on what we currently have been able to learn or discover, and yet we can still explore, experience and expand on our understanding of each of these. And the limits on knowledge can constantly be challenged - so the technology doesn’t exist to measure blood flow to women’s genitals (genital arousal) as accurately as we would like to be able to - thank goodness various research teams are on quests to do just that. A few years ago I was involved in the first ever study of sized to fit condoms (TheyFit condoms) - an invention that was the product of someone (the inventor, a warm and brilliant man named Frank Sadlo) who imagined new ways of creating condoms.

Thanks, iGoogle. Thanks, too, to Eastern Market for providing me with the most delicious chocolate raviolis, which I have been munching on while working today.

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I suppose by placing this ad (now old and outdated), this candidate’s team is to make the opposing candidate look bad for supporting the right of scientists at the National Institutes of Health to fund sexuality research, but it seems to have been received with both disdain and laughter. It can feel disappointing when candidates use these types of methods to attack or smear their candidates, rather than try to engage in intelligent or interesting discussions around policy and the aspects of life that really matter to many of us. It is too bad that this ad was done in a way that seems disrespectful of so many people, and that doesn’t give a true or accurate representation of the type of work funded by NIH during that time, or why it matters (and it does matter). You can read more about the 2003 controversy surrounding NIH funding on The Kinsey Institute’s web site.

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One challenge that sexual health researchers face in conducting research is an issue of self-reporting - depending on how a study a designed and how stigmatized certain behaviors are, it can be difficult to know if you are getting true and reliable answers to the questions that you ask. And I’m sure you know this in your own lives! For example, let’s say that you get upset every time your spouse or partner talks to or hears from an old boyfriend or girlfriend. Because you get upset when he or she tells you that they’ve talked to the ex, in some sense there is some "stigma" (or at least difficulty) around this conversation. As a result, your partner may be less likely to tell you honestly when he or she has heard from their ex. Or think about diet, sex, smoking or drinking. How many of you give accurate information to your healthcare provider about what you really eat, your true sexual behavior, or how often you smoke or drink alcohol? Sure, many people tell their healthcare provider that they are sexually active, but not everyone tells their healthcare provider that they have had oral sex, even though oral sex can transmit infections to one’s throat (like gonorrhea) that otherwise wouldn’t be detected in a genital-based or urine-based test for gonorrhea.

So you can imagine how difficult it can be to try to get reliable and valid responses about high risk sexual behavior and condom use among a highly stigmatized population (sex workers). Which is why researchers are always trying to design and test new methods of researching such behavior - and in this article, you can read about the "polling box" technique.

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