We examined the effects of manipulated arousal on willingness to taste moderately novel and extremely novel foods in children ranging from 7 to 12 years of age. Children were assigned at random to one of three arousal conditions (low, moderate, and high). Twice during the 30-min manipulation period, the children rated their willingness to taste the foods, with the understanding that these ratin...

The aim of this study was to inform the development of a questionnaire to assess a woman's tendency to respond with sexual excitation/inhibition in different situations. Nine focus groups, involving 80 women (M age = 34.3 years; range, 18-84), were conducted. Women described a wide range of physical (genital and nongenital), cognitive/emotional, and behavioral cues to arousal. The relationship ...

Changes in arousal modulate the activity of mouse sensory cortex, but studies in different mice and different sensory areas disagree on whether this modulation enhances or suppresses activity. We measured this modulation simultaneously in multiple cortical areas by imaging mice expressing voltage-sensitive fluorescent proteins (VSFP). VSFP imaging estimates local membrane potential across large...

Seemingly insignificant features of the context can undermine the quantitative performance of skilled females—an effect attributed to stereotype threat. The present studies tested the hypotheses that stereotype threat triggers arousal, and that attributions about that arousal could moderate the effects of stereotype threat on performance. To examine whether arousal is triggered by stereotype th...

Abstract Emotion regulation (ER) is viewed as a cognitively demanding process and involves selecting implementing specific strategies in support of one’s emotional goals. Older adults are theorized to maintain wellbeing by ER that consistent with their available resources, which may involve engaging more lower-arousal stimuli less higher-arousal stimuli, especially when cognitive resources limi...

INTRODUCTION Existing definitions of women's sexual disorders are based mainly on genitally focused events in a linear sequence model (desire, arousal and orgasm). AIM To revise definitions based on an alternative model reflecting women's reasons/incentives for sexual activity beyond any initial awareness of sexual desire. METHODS An International Definitions Committee of 13 experts from se...

Sexual arousal is an important part of sexual activity and is a particular state of readiness, characterized by a series of adaptive physiological and behavioral changes. Many physiological responses to sexual arousal have been well-documented, e.g. cardiovascular, respiratory and genital responses, changes in endocrine and immune systems. Sexual arousal also results in changes in cortical acti...

Cortical excitability is assumed to depend on cortical arousal level in an inverted U-shaped fashion: Largest (optimal) excitability is usually associated with medium levels of arousal. It has been proposed that under conditions of low arousal, compensatory effort is exerted if attentional demands persist. People tend to avoid this resource-consuming top-down compensation by creating or selecti...

Hypocretin/orexin modulates sleep-wake state via actions across multiple terminal fields. Within waking, hypocretin may also participate in high-arousal processes, including those associated with stress. The current studies examined the extent to which alterations in neuronal activity, as measured by Fos immunoreactivity, occur within both hypocretin-synthesizing and hypocretin-1 receptor-expre...

The current study was aimed at comparing genital and subjective sexual arousal in pre- and postmenopausal women and exploring the effects of heightened sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity on these parameters. Seventy-one women (25 young and premenopausal, 25 postmenopausal, and 21 age-matched premenopausal women) participated in two counterbalanced sessions consisting of genital arousal a...