Neuroticism and Attention Toward Sexual and Non-Sexual Images During an Oddball Task: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Abstract

While previous research has argued that neuroticism is a vulnerability factor for the experience of sexual difficulties, the basic cognitive processes associated with the impact of such a personality trait on the processing of sexually explicit stimuli are less understood. The current study examined the influence of neuroticism on the attentional processes and its neurophysiological correlates during the perception of sexual and non-sexual images. Eventrelated potentials from 30 women and 28 men were recorded during a modified oddball paradigm in which participants of both sexes visualized stimuli from three different categories (sexual, non-sexual positive, and non-sexual negative), and two arousal levels (high and low arousal). A P1 latency effect was found for female participants, in which high neuroticism was associated with longer latencies for pornographic compared to romantic sexual images. Higher levels of neuroticism were also associated with higher P3 amplitudes for highly arousing images, with both sexual and non-sexual content. Results were interpreted in light of the information processing model of sexual arousal and showed that neuroticism seems to impact both automatic and conscious pathways of processing of sexual stimuli.

Automatic attention to sexual stimuli: exploring the role of neuroticism and sexual excitation/inhibition through event-related potentials

“…As mentioned, the neuroelectric activity supporting this process was captured by the N2 component, but not by P1 or P2, which partially confirms our second hypothesis. Although a previous study [29] has identified a neuroticism effect on P1, in which women with high levels of neuroticism presented a significantly greater P1 latency for sexually explicit stimuli than for romantic ones, such effect was not identified in the current study. The fact that we only found an effect for N2 in our study could be attributed to fact that the N2 is thought to be sensitive to sexual images [26].…”

“…Several studies have empirically demonstrated the correlation between neuroelectric signals and cognitive aspects related to sexuality (see Ziogas et al [20], for a review), employing early attention ERP components. Recently, Carrito and colleagues [29] analysed the neuronal responses to sexual and non-sexual images between individuals presenting either high or low levels of neuroticism, and found that both neuroticism and the type of stimulus had an impact on P1 and P3 and, in the case of the former, also gender. With regards to the automatic attentional components, that study found a direct association between P1 latencies and neuroticism relatively to sexuallyexplicit stimuli when compared to romantic stimuli, but only in female participants.…”