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Lesson 10

This document discusses how the five senses - sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch - relate to human sexuality and affect. It explains that while humans are often thought of as rational beings, emotions primarily drive our behaviors through structures like the limbic system. Each sense plays a role in sexual responses - sight is important for visual stimuli, smell may signal attraction through pheromones, and touch is intimate through skin contact and oxytocin release. The senses are integral to both sexual arousal and forming social bonds between individuals.

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Naka Limut
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147 views

Lesson 10

This document discusses how the five senses - sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch - relate to human sexuality and affect. It explains that while humans are often thought of as rational beings, emotions primarily drive our behaviors through structures like the limbic system. Each sense plays a role in sexual responses - sight is important for visual stimuli, smell may signal attraction through pheromones, and touch is intimate through skin contact and oxytocin release. The senses are integral to both sexual arousal and forming social bonds between individuals.

Uploaded by

Naka Limut
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LESSON 10 :

SEX AND
SENSES
INTRODUCTION
 When we were children,we were taught
there are five bodily organs, which
corresponds to our primary senses which
we use to explore and experience the world
around us.
 EYES - sense of sight ( Visual ),so that we are able to
see visual stimuli ( color, size ,shape ) in the
environment.
 NOSE - sense of smell ( Olfaction ), so that we are able
to experience scent. 
 EARS - sense of hearing ( Audition ),so that we are able
to experience sounds of varying tones, pitches and
volume.
 TONGUE - sense of taste ( Gustation ), so that we are
able to experience the taste example saltness, sweetness,
bitterness of our food and other objects we put in our
mouth.
 SKIN, MUSCLES AND JOINTS - sense of touch/
feeling, so that we are able to have tactile experience
heat or its absence, various texture , various physical
pressure.
These five senses comprise our sensorium - the totality of
our sensory experiences and perception. While we receive
information from our environment through the senses, our
brain has the ability to organize and interpret to these
numerous stimuli into meaningful ideas that are useful for
our choices ( Behavior )
HUMAN AFFECT AND THE SENSES

 Interestingly, while human beings are hailed as rational


beings who are constantly making choices and are
behaving through a set of rational choices, made from
higher order thinking ( Evaluating , Judging ) it is
hypothesized that our affect emotions and feelings
actually play a major role in our behaviors.
 HYPOTHALAMIC NUCLEI - Is a bilateral collection
of nuclei divided into three zones sorrounding the third
ventricle and the mammillary bodies
 AMYDALA - Is the integrative center for emotions,
emotional behaviors and motivation
 HIPPOCAMPUS - Is a complex brain structure
embedded deep into temporal lobe, it has a major role
in learning and memory
 CINGULATE GYRUS- Is an arch- shaped convolution
situated just above the corpus callosum
 CORPUS CALLOSUM - Is the primary commissural
region of the brain consisting of white matter tracts that
connect the left and right hemisphere
 THALAMUS- Is a paired gray matter structure of the
diencephalon located the center of the brain
AFFECTIVE PRIMACY HYPOTHESIS ( Zajonc 1980 )
postulates that in many cases , cognitive processing
( higher order thinking ) plays a lesser role compared to
our emotional responses in eliciting behavior. By virtue of
this hypothesis, our emotions take precedent primarily
because these are only processed and modulated by the
LIMBIC

SYSTEM - the emotional part of our brain which is


more primitive compared to the ones responsible for
higher order thinking
AS PART OF OUR MECHANISMS FOR EVOLUTION
HUMAN LIKE US HAVE THREE PRIMARY
EMOTIONAL RESPONSES FIGHT, FLIGHT, FREEZE

 
1. A Fight response is when we face adverse or dangerous stimuli
squarely

2. A Flight response is when we move away from the adverse or


dangerous stimuli

3. A Freeze response on the other hand, is when you are started and
are unable to make a choice, thus are unable to move
SENSES AND SEXUALITY

 Having an provided overview on how affect,the


sensorium,and the brain’s limbic system
coordinate,we are now ready to discuss how the
various senses play in the human sexual
response.
Humans are predominantly visual.Our societies highly
rely on visual culture to co-create meaning and convey
information.
In the context of human sexuality,some studies have
explored gender differences in visual stimuli and sexual
arousal.

VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
Olfaction is non-human animals,which are believed to be
microsmatic organisms,having greater sense of smell,have been
interest among psychologists since the 1950s.Conversely,humans
and apes are generally believed to be microsmatic (lesser levels
of olfaction) compared to their non-ape
counterparts.However,recent studies in the field of human
sexuality show that while we humans have limited
olfaction,sense of smell may play an important part in our sexual
response.

OLFACTORY EXPERIENCE
 For instance,in study by Muscarella,Arantes,and Konesol
(2011)explored on the preferred scent among heterosexual and
homosexual males and females.
 The study found that heterosexual females who participated in
their study tend to like wearing floral-sweet but want musky-
spicy scent to be worn by their parents.

OLFACTORY EXPERIENCE
 Heterosexual males and homosexual females in their study
preferred musky-spicy scent and liked their partners to wear
floral-sweet scent.On the other hand,homosexual males who
joined the study wanted musky-spicy for themselves and their
partner.

OLFACTORY EXPERIENCE
Scientists have tried to explain how human olfaction
influence sexuality,They identified through possibilities.
 1.Through what is referred to as signature odor(the
unique way that each individuals smells)which is
associated with the Major Histocompatability
Complex,a set of proteins signaling our immune system
the presence of foreign substances.
 2.Through what is referred to as pheromones,substances
putatively excreted by our glands which signals mood
and affects social behaviors.
 Human’s interest is pheromones,on the other hand,has
been present since the early 1930s when an
entomologist Bethe (1932) suggested that there are
hormones emitted outwards the body.These are called
ectohormones.
 Tactile Experience
-Touch is observed to be an element of intimacy.Our
body is covered in skin,often referred to as the largest
bodily organ.Our skin totally accounts for 16 to 20% of
our body weight.It is a sensitive organ as every square
inch of it houses more than a thousand nerve endings.
 As a sensation,touch has some elements.
 Tactile -element pertains to the experience relative to the
object being felt;It is rough?Is it smooth?Is the surface
hard or soft?
 Thermal elements:Is it warm or cold?
 Finally,there is vibrational element:Is the pressure of the
touch strong or weak?Is the sensation moving and
pulsating or steady and stationary?
DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY
ALSO HAVE DIFFERENT THRESHOLD OF
TACTILE EXPERIENCE.

PRIMARY EROGENOUS ZONES- areas such as the


mouth,anus,genitals,and nipples.
 -as they are very sensitive to touch
SECONDARY EROGENOUS ZONES- the
back,cheek,neck and buttocks.
 -As they also sensitive to touch,but only supportive of
the primary zones in eliciting response.
Human touch is essential in ex social bonds.Often we
only give people we trust the right to have tactile contact
with us.It is always a consensual act to touch and be
touched and be touched.When we touch,our body
produces a hormone called oxytocin.
 OXYTOCIN- it is referred to as the love hormone
because it is believed to influence tribal behaviors and
maternal bonding.
- Is observe to be produced in vast amounts during
nipple stimulation,such as for instance when mother
suckles her newly-born.
In intimate relationships,touch is suggested to be one
the love languages.A person whose love language is touch
tend to give and receive tactile stimulation,to and from
others through holding,hugging and other forms of
physical connections.
Social interaction are not only visual,but are also
auditory processes.Our human language often have a
verbal counterpart to the written language.In
fact,historically,much of our culture are passed in through
oral traditions,even before the writing system was
developed.

AUDITORY EXPERIENCE

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