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Sexual arousal in women: A comparison of cognitive and physiological responses by continuous measurement

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Abstract

Six sexually normal women were exposed to a wide variety of erotic video tapes while vaginal, groin, and breast vasocongestion measures were taken. The women indicated their subjective level of sexual arousal while viewing the tapes by positioning a lever device along a calibrated scale. The results indicated highly significant positive correlations among the cognitive and physiological measures for five out of six individual subjects, although the pooled group data failed to show significance. The methodology described in this research shows promise as a diagnostic and research tool.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brown University Medical School/Providence VA Hospital, 02908, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    John P. Wincze Ph.D. (Associate Professor)

  2. Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Peter Hoon Ph.D. (Assistant Professor)

  3. Nova Scotia Hospital, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Emily Franck Hoon B.A. (Staff Psychologist)

Authors
  1. John P. Wincze Ph.D.
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  2. Peter Hoon Ph.D.
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  3. Emily Franck Hoon B.A.
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Additional information

This research was funded in part by grants from the National Research Council of Canada and from Carl Abbott, M.D., Dalhousie Medical School.

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Wincze, J.P., Hoon, P. & Hoon, E.F. Sexual arousal in women: A comparison of cognitive and physiological responses by continuous measurement. Arch Sex Behav 6, 121–133 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01541704

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