야동에 대한 반응 속도...남자나 여자나 Sexual images are just as arousing for women as they are for men
Sexual images are just as arousing for women as they are for men
By Clare Wilson
Women’s brains react to pornography just as much as men’s, challenging the widespread belief that men get more turned on by visual stimuli.
The finding comes from a review of 61 brain scanning studies that showed men and women pornographic pictures or films as they lay in a brain scanner.
When it comes to viewing pornography, male and female brains respond in the same way
Hinterhaus Productions/Getty
‘야동’에 대한 반응, 남녀 차이 없다 독일 막스 플랑크 연구소 성적인 이미지에 대한 두뇌의 반응은 남녀가 유별하지 않다는 연구 결과가 나왔다. 지금껏 남성은 시각적인 자극에 더 쉽게 좌우되기 때문에 포르노그래피에 여성보다 민감하게 반응하는 것으로 알려졌으나, 이번 연구는 그런 통념에 의문을 제기한 셈이다. 독일 막스 플랑크 연구소에 따르면 참가자들에게 성적인 이미지를 보여주면서 자기공명장치로 뇌의 활동을 살폈을 때 편도체, 섬엽, 선조체 등 두뇌의 각 부위가 반응하는 양상은 성별에 따라 큰 차이가 없었다. 기존 연구에서 이미지를 보여준 뒤 성적인 자극이 있는지 물었을 때, 남성 참가자들이 여성보다 더 많은 자극을 받았다고 답변한 것과는 다른 결과였다. 연구진은 “성적인 이미지에 대한 두뇌의 반응이 성별에 따라 다르다는 기존 연구 결과는 과장된 측면이 있다”면서 “참가자가 너무 적었거나, 참가자들이 이미지를 대하는 태도의 차이를 고려하지 못했기 때문”이라고 추측했다. 여전히 의문으로 남는 점은 있다. 이번 연구는 성적인 이미지에 대한 반응의 양상이 성별과 무관하다는 의미일 뿐, 남녀 간 반응의 강도를 측정한 것은 아니다. 하미드 누리 박사는 “사회적 관습상 여성은 성적인 자극을 받았다고 표현하는 것을 꺼린다”며 “그러나 이번 연구는 성적인 자극에 반응하는 데는 남녀가 다르지 않다는 점을 보여준 것”이라고 강조했다. 이번 연구(Neural substrates of sexual arousal are not sex dependent)는 ‘미국 국립과학원 회보(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)’에 실리고, 영국 ‘가디언’이 보도했다. 이용재 기자 youngchaeyi@kormedi.com 코메디닷컴 |
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Although there is wide variation in behaviour among both sexes, men are usually seen as being more interested in sex. In questionnaire-based research, the responses suggest that men find erotic images more appealing than women do. This is often interpreted as women requiring more of an emotional connection before they become aroused.
This difference was seemingly confirmed with the advent of brain-scanning studies, with some finding that men’s brains are more responsive to pornography.
No difference
But the field of brain scanning has been criticised in recent years for being prone to using methods that can lead to spurious results, such as drawing conclusions from small differences that could have arisen by chance. So Hamid Noori at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, and colleagues analysed the results from all the brain-scanning studies that have tried to answer this question, looking at the whole brain and covering nearly 2000 people. Overall it found no difference between men and women.
kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de
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“There are differences in behaviour – the number of men going to porn sites is roughly 80 per cent of the consumers,” says Noori. “But men and women respond the same way at the brain level to visual sexual stimuli. What we do with it afterwards is what brings the difference.”
Women may watch less pornography because it is more stigmatised, says David Ley, a writer and sex therapist at outpatient centre New Mexico Solutions. He says the study shows “women can be just as visual as men, if they are allowed to be”.
The findings don’t prove women’s and men’s brains react to pornography identically, as brain scans only show activity at the level of relatively large anatomical structures, says Noori – there could still be differences at the level of brain cells that don’t show up on scans.
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