Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2022-2023)

Very little research exists on human asexuality, defined as “absence of sexual attraction.” While asexuality research seems on the surface to be a very specific field of research, the exceptional nature of asexuality may provide a unique human model for studying sexual differentiation of the brain, cognition, and behaviour. Thus, asexuality may be the key that unlocks our understanding of all the sexualities (typical and atypical).

A decade of research in my lab has tested the tenet that asexuality is a unique sexual orientation. Specifically, I have ruled out theories that asexuality is a sexual dysfunction, a psychological disorder, and a paraphilia. Furthermore, my work suggests that the lifelong lack of sexual attraction, essential to asexuality, may be an innate biological characteristic. In general, hormonal, genetic, and immunological processes have been hypothesized to influence sexual differentiation of the brain and to lead to variations in sexual attraction and orientation, and this seems also to be the case in asexuality. Here, we propose to probe this further.

Over 5 years we propose 3 studies, each employing validated methodologies in sexual orientation research not previously applied to asexuality. In Study 1, we will use automatic measures of sexual attraction (eye-movements and pupil dilations while viewing visual stimuli) to assess visual attention to and cognitive processing of sexually preferred and non-preferred cues.

In Study 2 , will we use a series of neuroimaging techniques to contrast asexual and sexual groups (including hypersexual and control participants) to investigate neuroanatomic features including brain structure and function. This will be the first-ever study of neuroimaging in asexuals. Brain activity will be recorded in a 90-min brain scanning session, while participants are at rest and while they are viewing erotic stimuli.

Study 3 will replicate and expand my earlier study of biological markers of asexuality by investigating physical growth patterns; e.g., height, finger-length ratio, and handedness. These variables are considered biomarkers of variations in sexual orientation development (specifically among gay participants) and are thought to reflect prenatal influence of androgens. We will also investigate the fraternal birth order effect, another biomarker of sexual orientation, by investigating whether the number and sex of biological siblings of asexual individuals significantly differs from that of sexual individuals.

Overall, the proposed research program will directly answer puzzling questions about the neural correlates of asexuality, and will refine our conceptual models of etiological pathways of the development of asexuality as well as other sexual orientations. It will transform our understanding of the sexual differentiation of the brain, cognition, and behaviour.