Abstract
Study design
Observational cross-sectional study.
Objectives
To determine the differences between persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) and control individuals in terms of conscious and unconscious sexual responses to subliminally presented visual sexual stimuli.
Setting
Spinal cord injury rehabilitation center in northern Italy.
Methods
A two-part behavioral experiment was conducted on 40 participants (27 individuals with SCI; 13 controls). In first part, all participants were subliminally exposed to a prime picture (neutral or sexual) and asked to rate the extent to which they were emotionally aroused, while watching a set of explicit target pictures (neutral or sexual). In the second part, choice reaction time task was employed, wherein participants were shown a subliminal prime picture (neutral or sexual) followed by an explicit target picture (neutral or sexual) superimposed by a black dot and were asked to locate the dot as fast as possible.
Results
In the first part, men with SCI reported higher levels of emotional arousal to explicit sexual target pictures compared to other groups. In the second part, slower choice reaction times were found in the SCI group, particularly with sexual prime picture. Moreover, females with SCI spent more time during implicit motor learning tasks with sexual target pictures than other groups.
Conclusion
We found differences in the experience of subliminal and explicit sexual pictures not only between the two groups, but also between females and males with SCI. Attention should thus be paid when considering sexual experience at subliminal and conscious level in SCI population for future research and rehabilitative protocols.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr. Mark Angelo Ang and Dr. Edoardo Nicolò Aiello for their helpful assistance with data analyses and interpretation. We are also sincerely grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their precious comments on the manuscript.
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EZ, SS, and HCB conceived the idea. EZ and SS performed the experiment. EZ and CFL wrote the initial drafts and final revisions of the manuscript. RRR, PP, SM, and HCB made substantial contributions in the content of the revised versions.
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Zanin, E., Leochico, C.F.D., Salizzato, S. et al. Differences between males and females with spinal cord injury in the experience of subliminal and explicit sexual pictures. Spinal Cord 60, 142–148 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-021-00723-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-021-00723-4
