“Sex for Fun: a Synthesis of Human and Animal Neurobiology”, 2012-08-28 (; similar):
Restructuring sexual behavior into broader terms reflecting behavioral states (wanting, liking, and inhibition) facilitates species comparison; similarities between animal and human sexual pleasure cycles can serve as potential avenues of new human sex research
Sexual wanting in both rats and humans involves interaction between gonadal hormones and external stimuli that become sexual incentives through association with genitally-induced sexual reward; pleasurable genital stimulation is thus a major factor in sexual learning
In terms of underlying brain networks and neurochemistry identified in both rat and human, wanting sex is something completely different to liking sex
Sexual inhibition involves similar brain mechanisms in rats and humans
Rats show a similar pattern of brain activation to humans in response to cues related to sexual reward
Cortical, limbic, hypothalamic, and cerebellar regions are activated by sex-related stimuli in both humans and rats
Sex is a fundamental pleasure, and crucial to the survival of our species. Though not many people would disagree with the proposition that sexual behavior depends on the brain, the neuroscientific study of human sex is still relatively taboo and much remains to be discovered. On the contrary, excellent experimental animal models (mostly rat) are available that have uncovered major behavioral, neurochemical, and neuroanatomical characteristics of sexual behavior.
Restructuring sexual behavior into broader terms reflecting behavioral states (wanting, liking, and inhibition) facilitates species comparison, revealing many similarities between animal and human sexual pleasure cycles, some of which can serve as potential avenues of new human sex research.
In particular, behavioral and brain evidence clearly shows that motivational and consummatory phases are fundamentally distinct, and that genitally-induced sexual reward is a major factor in sexual learning mechanisms.