Current studies.

We are going to stimulate your BRAAAAAINNNN

People who struggle to make good decisions about their sexual behaviors are probably not terribly motivated to avoid those behaviors: Sex feels good! We have completed a trial using brain stimulation as a method to help people gain control over their sexual urges. Forthcoming!

Sexual arousal and decision making

When someone decides whether or not to use a condom, whether or not to invite that friend from the bar home, or whether to stop at oral sex, they are usually in a sexually aroused state. Oddly, we know very little about how this sexually aroused state affects these decisions. We're working on it!

Self-regulation of sexual arousal

What affects your ability to control your sexual arousal? Is that skill related to your real sexual risk behaviors? So far, we have replicated another study (Winters et al., 2009) that found those reporting more "sex addiction" problems actually do not have poorer regulation skills, but those with higher sexual desire do struggle to downregulate.

Sexy films and the brain

Over 200 men and women have viewed sexy films in our lab. How does the brain attend to these films and how does that relate to individual differences? You guessed it, those high desire folks sure get bored fast (but it's unrelated to "sex addiction").

Erectile functioning and visual sexual stimuli

Media often suggest that viewing sexual stimuli online causes men to become less responsive, both to their partners and other visual sexual stimuli, over time. We have tested this in a large sample of men and identify effects in direct opposition to this assumption.