Nov 1, 2004 12:00 PM

Sex, Drugs, and MRIs

For some people, sex is pretty straightforward: Insert here. Others see it as far more complicated – and worthy of closer inspection. Since 1948, when Alfred Kinsey’s best seller, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, broke open the field of sex research, scientists have been trying to lay bare the mysteries of human urges. (Kinsey, […]

For some people, sex is pretty straightforward: Insert here. Others see it as far more complicated - and worthy of closer inspection. Since 1948, when Alfred Kinsey's best seller, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, broke open the field of sex research, scientists have been trying to lay bare the mysteries of human urges. (Kinsey, a biopic opening November 12, pulls back the curtain on the doctor's own sex life; it seems he was fond of threesomes.) More than 50 years later, the Kinsey Institute's new director, psychologist Julia Heiman is focused on new frontiers in sex research, like measuring pelvic blood flow with MRIs. We asked her how science and technology might lead to a sexually enlightened future.

WIRED: Seems like porn is everywhere these days. Should we blame the Internet?
HEIMAN: In my practice, I see people who are using pornography on the Web to excess - meaning that it's interfering with their jobs. There is obviously a huge group of other people who look at pornography frequently, too. But it causes a problem only for a minority.

Isn't easy access magnifying the problem?
Every increase in printing and reproduction technology is accompanied by an increase in the availability of sexually explicit material. In a free society, you have the right to publish information - a right most of us want to protect.

The Bush administration has gone after the porn industry. Are you worried that sex research is next?
It's already happening. Last year the federal government threatened to withdraw funding from five grants in sex research after the projects had passed the National Institutes of Health peer-review system. That's a recipe for chaos. We need science that's critically evaluated. I think that idea is being challenged, and a lot of scientists are quite concerned about it - and I mean scientists outside the sex research area.

What can new technology tell us about turn-ons?
The pelvic MRI looks at changes in the genital area during sexual arousal. Women wear a genital instrument - a vaginal photoplethysmograph - that measures blood flow. They view sexually explicit material through eyepieces connected to a PC via fiber-optic cables. We can now measure the genital changes that occur during this experience. This tells us whether there has been any damage that might interfere with their ability to respond sexually.

So do women who don't orgasm have a physiological problem?
Our best thinking on orgasm at the moment is that it is caused by a combination of psychological and physiological factors. A normally orgasmic woman will have her orgasm delayed if she takes certain antidepressants. She definitely doesn't have a genital problem - it has to do with neurotransmitter changes.

You can't turn on a TV without seeing an ad for Viagra. Are pills the way to a sexually functional future?
When Viagra came out, it was a paradigm shift. Suddenly there was a pill that would change your sexuality. This was so different from what had gone on before - no more penis injections, suppositories, or mechanical devices. Medication is making people reexamine what sex means to them and what kind of activity it is.

- David Goldenberg

credit John Bragg
Hot for research: Heiman is the Kinsey Instituteés new director.