How sexy we feel depends on our genes

May 31 2006

According to researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, how sexy we feel depends on our genes.

The believe their research could have an impact on people's understanding of their own sexuality as well as to how sexual disorders may come to be treated in the future.

Prof Richard P. Ebstein, of Herzog Hospital and the head of the Scheinfeld Center for Human Genetics in the Social Sciences of the Psychology Department at the Hebrew University, and a research team headed by Prof Robert H. Belmaker of the Psychiatry Division of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, say their findings have implications which could represent a revolutionary change in the way society, and especially psychologists regard this central element of human behavior.

In this latest study, the Israeli investigators examined the DNA of 148 healthy male and female Israeli university students and compared the results with questionnaires asking for the students' self-descriptions of their sexual desire, arousal and sexual function.

The results showed a correlation between variants in the D4 receptor gene, which is responsible for producing the dopamine receptor protein (DRD4), and the students' self-reports on sexuality.

It had been previously thought that most of the variations in the expression of human sexuality were considered to be the result of learned behavior or psychological problems.

However, recent advances in molecular genetic studies of human behavior and personality, imaging studies of sexual arousal and performance, and neuroendocrinological investigations suggest that individual variations in many aspects of human sexuality, similar to other human behavior, are likely to rest on a firm foundation in the neurosciences.

The scientists also say that variations like low sexual desire could be quite normal and need not be related to dysfunction.