Sexual incentive motivation, sexual behavior, and general arousal: Do rats and humans tell the same story?

This article presents the development of a brief, self-report measure of female sexual function. Initial face validity testing of questionnaire items, identified by an expert panel, was followed by a study aimed at further refining the questionnaire. It was administered to 131 normal controls and 128 age-matched subjects with female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) at five research centers. Based on clinical interpretations of a principal components analysis, a 6-domain structure was identified, which included desire, subjective arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain. Overall test-retest reliability coefficients were high for each of the individual domains (r = 0.79 to 0.86) and a high degree of internal consistency was observed (Cronbach's alpha values of 0.82 and higher) Good construct validity was demonstrated by highly significant mean difference scores between the FSAD and control groups for each of the domains (p < or = 0.001). Additionally, divergent validity with a scale of marital satisfaction was observed. These results support the reliability and psychometric (as well as clinical) validity of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) in the assessment of key dimensions of female sexual function in clinical and nonclinical samples. Our findings also suggest important gender differences in the patterning of female sexual function in comparison with similar questionnaire studies in males.

Pupil diameter was monitored during picture viewing to assess effects of hedonic valence and emotional arousal on pupillary responses. Autonomic activity (heart rate and skin conductance) was concurrently measured to determine whether pupillary changes are mediated by parasympathetic or sympathetic activation. Following an initial light reflex, pupillary changes were larger when viewing emotionally arousing pictures, regardless of whether these were pleasant or unpleasant. Pupillary changes during picture viewing covaried with skin conductance change, supporting the interpretation that sympathetic nervous system activity modulates these changes in the context of affective picture viewing. Taken together, the data provide strong support for the hypothesis that the pupil's response during affective picture viewing reflects emotional arousal associated with increased sympathetic activity.

With the steadily increasing number of publications in the field of stress research it has become evident that the conventional usage of the stress concept bears considerable problems. The use of the term 'stress' to conditions ranging from even the mildest challenging stimulation to severely aversive conditions, is in our view inappropriate. Review of the literature reveals that the physiological 'stress' response to appetitive, rewarding stimuli that are often not considered to be stressors can be as large as the response to negative stimuli. Analysis of the physiological response during exercise supports the view that the magnitude of the neuroendocrine response reflects the metabolic and physiological demands required for behavioural activity. We propose that the term 'stress' should be restricted to conditions where an environmental demand exceeds the natural regulatory capacity of an organism, in particular situations that include unpredictability and uncontrollability. Physiologically, stress seems to be characterized by either the absence of an anticipatory response (unpredictable) or a reduced recovery (uncontrollable) of the neuroendocrine reaction. The consequences of this restricted definition for stress research and the interpretation of results in terms of the adaptive and/or maladaptive nature of the response are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.