Eye-tracking does not reveal early attention processing of sexual copulatory movement in heterosexual men and women

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 5306
• Main Authors: Vaníček, Ondřej, Krejčová, Lucie, Hůla, Martin, Potyszová, Kateřina, Klapilová, Kateřina, Bártová, Klára
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 04.03.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/378/1804; 631/378/2649/1310; 631/477/2811; Animals; Attentional Bias; Cognitive ability; Copulation; Eroticism; Eye-Tracking Technology; Female; Females; Gays & lesbians; Gender; Gender differences; Heterosexuality; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hypotheses; Information processing; Male; multidisciplinary; Primates; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sexual Behavior; Sexual intercourse; Transgender persons; Vagina; Women
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53243-5

Men and women respond differently when presented with sexual stimuli. Men's reaction is gender-specific, and women's reaction is gender-nonspecific. This might be a result of differential cognitive processing of sexual cues, namely copulatory movement (CM), which is present in almost every dynamic erotic stimulus. A novelty eye-tracking procedure was developed to assess the saliency of short film clips containing CM or non-CM sexual activities. Results from 29 gynephilic men and 31 androphilic women showed only small and insignificant effects in attention bias and no effects in attentional capture. Our results suggest that CM is not processed differently in men and women and, therefore, is not the reason behind gender-nonspecific sexual responses in women.