Functional MRI Detects Schwing Center of the Brain

Ever wonder what part of your brain lights up when you see a pretty girl? Turns out it's the nucleus accumbens. Where is the nucleus accumbens? you may ask. It's in the forebrain, right hemisphere (which explains why there are disproportionate numbers of left-handed jerkers). The nucleus accumbens is one of the brain's main "reward centers," the places that make you feel good. In particular, the nucleus accumbens has been linked with the reward that goes along with drug and alcohol use. So, all this time, I thought liquor and looking at hot chicks were two passions, but it turns out they're the same one.

Here's the link to the study, which was published in the same venue that brought us bat fellatio:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0009042

A couple of notes about the study. Ostensibly, the researchers were trying to test the significance of the 0.7 Waist-to-Hip-Ratio (WHR), and their title claims that they have. But, if you actually look at their results, you see that they correlated nucleus accumbens activity not with the WHR, but with subjective attractiveness ratings, which, for this sample of 14 American men (mean age 25 with a standard deviation of 6.3) happened to correlate with a 0.7 WHR. Personally, I'm a firm believer in the 0.7 WHR. I know, at least, that it pushes my buttons (that and a great pair of knockers), but I'm unsure about its universality.

On the other hand, I do agree with the statements of one of the researchers, "This research explains things like sexual harassment and whistling at the hot girl in the street. These findings could help further our understanding of pornography addiction and related disorders." If seeing a hot chick really does push some of the same buttons as drugs or alcohol, we might expect some of our higher cognitive functions to be suppressed, including good judgment and inhibition. This effect could also be heightened in an otherwise testosterone-rich environment, such as a male-dominated workplace.

I'll close with some random stimuli: