No Time To Eat: An Adaptationist Account Of Periovulatory Behavioral Changes

Fessler, Daniel M. T.

doi:10.1086/367579

Cited by 77 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 108 publications

(122 reference statements)

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“…Given that all behaviors necessarily entail opportunity costs, we can therefore expect that, if they are governed by adaptations, motivations to engage in behaviors that are not tied directly to conception will exhibit a periovulatory reduction. For example, in many mammals, including humans, caloric intake is reduced around ovulation, thereby reducing foraging time in a manner that frees up time for mate-seeking and mating (Fessler, 2003). By the same token, independent of conscious intentions as regards reproduction, we might expect women to prioritize opposite-sex sexual contact over same-sex sexual contact during the fertile window.…”

Section: Progesteronementioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Affiliation Hypothesis of Homoerotic Motivation in Humans: The Effects of Progesterone and Priming

2014

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The frequency of homoerotic behavior among individuals who do not identify as having an exclusively homosexual sexual orientation suggests that such behavior potentially has adaptive value. Here we define homoerotic behavior as intimate erotic contact between members of the same sex and affiliation as the motivation to make and maintain social bonds. Among both male and female nonhuman primates affiliation is one of the main drivers of homoerotic behavior.Correspondingly, in humans, both across cultures and across historical periods, homoerotic behavior appears to play a role in promoting social bonds. However, to date, the affiliation explanation of human homoerotic behavior has not been adequately tested experimentally. We developed a measure of homoerotic motivation with a sample of 244 men and women. Next, we found that, in women (n= 92), homoerotic motivation was positively associated with progesterone, a hormone that has been shown to promote affiliative bonding. Lastly, we explored the effects of affiliative contexts on homoerotic motivation in men (n=59), finding that men in an affiliative priming condition were more likely to endorse engaging in homoerotic behavior compared to those primed with neutral or sexual concepts, and this effect was more pronounced in men with high progesterone. These findings constitute the first experimental support for the affiliation account of the evolution of homoerotic motivation in humans.

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Section: Progesteronementioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Affiliation Hypothesis of Homoerotic Motivation in Humans: The Effects of Progesterone and Priming

2014

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“…It is possible that had we used higher doses or a more prolonged treatment with raclopride, we would have observed a similar reversal too. Shortlatency and short-lasting phase bursts of activation of ventral tegmental area DA projections to the hippocampus (El-Ghundi et al, 1999, 2003Li et al, 2003;Moncada and Viola, 2007) are believed to foster learning by highlighting novel aspects of a stimulus and/or a response that is contingently or subsequently paired with a reward (Schultz, 2006). In this view, our findings on the STFP for a novel food item are in agreement with results showing that SCH23390 could block novelty seeking in rats (Peters et al, 2007) and the impaired reversal learning of D1KO mice in both spatial and food rewarded learning (El-Ghundi et al, 1999, 2003.…”

Section: Effects Of the Dopaminergic D1-type And D2-type Antagonists mentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential Effects of Dopamine Receptor D1-Type and D2-Type Antagonists and Phase of the Estrous Cycle on Social Learning of Food Preferences, Feeding, and Social Interactions in Mice

Choleris

Clipperton-Allen

Gray

et al. 2011

Neuropsychopharmacol

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The neurobiological bases of social learning, by which an animal can 'exploit the expertise of others' and avoid the disadvantages of individual learning, are only partially understood. We examined the involvement of the dopaminergic system in social learning by administering a dopamine D1-type receptor antagonist, SCH23390 (0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 mg/kg), or a D2-type receptor antagonist, raclopride (0.1, 0.3, and 0.6 mg/kg), to adult female mice prior to socially learning a food preference. We found that while SCH23390 dose-dependently inhibited social learning without affecting feeding behavior or the ability of mice to discriminate between differently flavored diets, raclopride had the opposite effects, inhibiting feeding but leaving social learning unaffected. We showed that food odor, alone or in a social context, was insufficient to induce a food preference, proving the specifically social nature of this paradigm. The estrous cycle also affected social learning, with mice in proestrus expressing the socially acquired food preference longer than estrous and diestrous mice. This suggests gonadal hormone involvement, which is consistent with known estrogenic regulation of female social behavior and estrogen receptor involvement in social learning. Furthermore, a detailed ethological analysis of the social interactions during which social learning occurs showed raclopride-and estrous phase-induced changes in agonistic behavior, which were not directly related to effects on social learning. Overall, these results suggest a differential involvement of the D1-type and D2-type receptors in the regulation of social learning, feeding, and agonistic behaviors that are likely mediated by different underlying states.

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“…Researchers have used as few as two to as many as 6 phases to examine the menstrual cycle (Cohen et al, 1987;Fessler, 2003) resulting in a lack of uniformity, consistency and duration. In this study we remedied the problem by only examining women with documented surges in luteinizing hormone (LH) to establish strictly defined menstrual cycle phases.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Menstrual Cycle and Sexual Behavior: Relationship to Eating, Exercise, Sleep, and Health Patterns

Brown¹,

Morrison²,

Calibuso³

et al. 2008

Women & Hlth.

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Patterns of eating, exercise, sleep and health were investigated across 180 menstrual cycles of 89 women who engaged in sex with a male (n = 45; cycles = 85), a female (n = 21; cycles = 37) or abstained from sex (n = 33; cycles = 58) from January 2005 to December 2007 (10 contributed to 2 groups). Cycles were divided into 5 phases based on their luteinizing hormone surges. Daily questionnaires and saliva for IgA and cortisol analyses were obtained. Women indicated that they ate more (p < .008) and did not sleep as well (p = .02) during their luteal and premenstrual phases. Participants were less likely to experience food cravings and did not satisfy their cravings when they were ovulatory (p < .001). Additionally, a greater proportion of lesbians skipped breakfast (p = .01) and exercised less than heterosexuals (p = .05). Sexually active women had lower cortisol and IgA levels than abstinent women (p = .02). Our study discovered, and confirmed, systematic differences in eating, sleeping and health patterns across women's menstrual cycles. Keywordslesbian; IgA; cortisol; alcohol; food cravings and abstinence Substantial research has been conducted on changes in women's sexuality across their menstrual cycles (Bullivant et al., 2004), but considerably fewer studies have been conducted on how other behaviors such as eating, exercise, sleep and health vary across the cycle. Additionally, little is known about how women who engage in sex with other women across a menstrual cycle might differ in their health patterns from women who abstain from or engage in sex with men.Fessler (2003) theorized that women ate less and exercised more at ovulation because their behavior was directed towards mating at this time. In contrast, he argued that women increased their feeding behavior during their luteal phases when implantation was likely. His review of the literature supported his theory. Independent research also found that women ate more (Bryant et al., 2006) and reported more food cravings, especially for chocolate (Michener et al., 1999) and carbohydrates (Cohen et al., 1987) during the luteal phase of their cycles, although the chocolate craving may have a cultural origin (Zellner et al., 2004). Sternfeld et al. (2002) found that moderate levels of physical activity were positively correlated with cycle length. However, most research on exercise and the menstrual cycle has been conducted on women athletes (Goodman & Warren, 2005) and is therefore difficult to generalize to other women. As far as we know, comparable research into eating and exercise has not been conducted on lesbians across their menstrual cycles. Some studies of lesbian health behavior have reported that lesbians have a higher body mass index (BMI) (Case et al., 2004) and higher frequencies of obesity (Boehmer et al., 2007) and substance abuse (Ridner et al., 2006) than heterosexuals. Other studies have found the opposite (Heffernan, 1998) or mixed results (Heffernan, 1996).Objectification and stigmatization theories have been used to explain th...

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No Time To Eat: An Adaptationist Account Of Periovulatory Behavioral Changes

Cited by 77 publications

References 108 publications

Testing the Affiliation Hypothesis of Homoerotic Motivation in Humans: The Effects of Progesterone and Priming

Testing the Affiliation Hypothesis of Homoerotic Motivation in Humans: The Effects of Progesterone and Priming

Differential Effects of Dopamine Receptor D1-Type and D2-Type Antagonists and Phase of the Estrous Cycle on Social Learning of Food Preferences, Feeding, and Social Interactions in Mice

The Menstrual Cycle and Sexual Behavior: Relationship to Eating, Exercise, Sleep, and Health Patterns

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