1398 



HORMONAL REGULATION OF BEHAVIOR 



Tactile and somesthetic signals relayed 

 to the brain from both the genitopelvic 

 area and from other parts of the body may 

 have erotic significance and promote erotic 

 arousal. Erotic arousal may be generated 

 also by signals sent to the brain from the 

 eyes, the ears, and the sense of smell, which 

 signals may be erotically just as potent as 

 genitopelvic tactile signals. An action of 

 sex hormones on certain of these modalities 

 has been claimed (Torda and Wolff. 1944; 

 Beach, 1948; Le Magnen, 1952a, 1952b; 

 Harris, IMichael and Scott, 1958; Schneider, 

 Costiloe, Howard and Wolf, 1958), but the 

 area is largely unexplored, especially in 

 man. 



Erotic arousal may be triggered not only 

 by sensory signals but also by memory sig- 

 nals from the brain, witness the erotic 

 dreams of paraplegic patients who are in- 

 capable of pelvic sensation and who pre- 

 sumably do not, wdiile sleeping, see, hear, 

 smell or feel anything erotic that induces 

 the dreams. Primarily the function of the 

 brain in eroticism is to coordinate and re- 

 cord signals that arrive by way of the dif- 

 ferent sensory modalities. Messages so re- 

 ceived may then be either inhibited or 

 further processed and transmitted in the 

 service of erotic arousal. The brain can per- 

 form its erotic function independently of 

 pelvic participation, witness again the 

 dreams and fantasies of paraplegic patients 

 whose genitalia function only through spinal 

 reflexes and without any neural connection 

 with the brain. The brain may record erotic 

 signals and store them as memories for in- 

 definite periods of time, so that past experi- 

 ences of critical significance in the life his- 

 tory exert a constant and indelible influence 

 on an individual's erotic inclinations and 

 choices. 



VIII. References 



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