No fooling; visual appeal is not determined by what we see
Background: Its role in guiding behavior determines the utility of sensory information, but recent results show that visual input is not directly responsible for guiding behaviors associated with classification of differences between animate and inanimate objects (Mahon, Anzellotti, Schwarzbach, Zampini, & Caramazza, 2009). Researchers who claim that visual input has greater incentive salience than olfactory/pheromonal input could help others understand the development of human sexual behavior if they would only tell us what model they are using for their determination of relative salience.
Evidence: Despite their social and biological relevance, no animal model supports any conclusion from cognitive neuroscience that suggests the perception of people is based on brain mechanisms specifically devoted to processing any class of visual information (see for review Hari & Kujala, 2009). In contrast, all animal models support the conclusion that the processing of olfactory/pheromonal information is both socially and biologically the most relevant class of stimuli (Kohl, 2012). This fact begs the question of why any face or body response to visual input from human conspecifics is enhanced by nudity (Hietanen & Nummenmaa, 2011). Indeed, the social brain network evolves perfectly fine in the absence of vision (Bedny, Pascual-Leone, & Saxe, 2009).
Context: Sexual behavior in unclothed mammals is preceded by social behaviors important for food acquisition, which allows all species to establish their ecological and social niche. In this context, what do brain imaging results linked to sexual responses, or more specifically to paraphilias, tell us about behavioral development in people? Is there a model for that (Karremans, Frankenhuis, & Arons, 2010)?
References:
Bedny, M., Pascual-Leone, A., & Saxe, R. R. (2009). Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A., 106(27), 11312-11317.
Hari, R., & Kujala, M. V. (2009). Brain Basis of Human Social Interaction: From Concepts to Brain Imaging. Physiological Reviews, 89(2), 453-479.
Hietanen, J. K., & Nummenmaa, L. (2011). The Naked Truth: The Face and Body Sensitive N170 Response Is Enhanced for Nude Bodies. PLoS ONE, 6(11), e24408.
Karremans, J. C., Frankenhuis, W. E., & Arons, S. (2010). Blind men prefer a low waist-to-hip ratio. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(3), 182-186.
Kohl, J. V. (2012). Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors. Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology, 2(Accessed March 15, 2012), https://www.socioaffectiveneuroscipsychol.net/index.php/snp/article/view/17338
Mahon, B. Z., Anzellotti, S., Schwarzbach, J., Zampini, M., & Caramazza, A. (2009). Category-Specific Organization in the Human Brain Does Not Require Visual Experience. Neuron, 63(3), 397-405.
Want more on the same topic?
Swipe/Drag Left and Right To Browse Related Posts:
#SFN2019 to 2012: Hiding the facts (2)
6 MIN READ
0
Michael Bloomberg for President (NOT) in 2020
2 MIN READ
0
RNA methylation (2)
7 MIN READ
0
RNA-mediated DNA modifications
5 MIN READ
0
Mechanisms of stress: from genes to cancer
9 MIN READ
0
Unconscious affect (revisited)
2 MIN READ
0
Appetite for ingesting theories (raw)
< 1 MIN READ
0
Effect and affect of a single base-pair change
4 MIN READ
0
Eliminating evolutionary theory
3 MIN READ
0
2014 and 2004 Nobel Prize in Medicine
3 MIN READ
0
Forces of "Nature" limit dissemination of information
4 MIN READ
0
Ecological variation and niche construction: 1, 2, 3
6 MIN READ
0
New technique used in report of atomic-level ecological adaptations
3 MIN READ
0
Is the problem an internet echo or Feierman's ethics?
2 MIN READ
0
Insect homology and diversity attributed to mutations
2 MIN READ
0
Pulses of olfactory/pheromonal input
2 MIN READ
0
Nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled stickleback evolution
2 MIN READ
0
Functional coding variants are not mutations
2 MIN READ
0
Are pheromones responsible for human body odour assessment?
2 MIN READ
0
Evolved development of olfactory systems
2 MIN READ
0
Is there a model for that?
3 MIN READ
0
Desmond Morris Syndrome: No selective advantage
2 MIN READ
0
Olfactory modulation of visual perception
2 MIN READ
0
How Species Diversify
2 MIN READ
0
Nobel laureate challenges psychologists to clean up their act
2 MIN READ
0
The Missing Transgenerational Epigenetic Links
2 MIN READ
0
“Just-So” stories vs scientific explanations
2 MIN READ
0
Adaptive evolution or not: cone receptors in the eye vs odor receptors
2 MIN READ
0
Unconscious affects on incalculable genomic interactions
3 MIN READ
0
ENCODE: extant vs extinct species and a clash of world views
4 MIN READ
0
Is the language of God the god problem? (1530 words)
6 MIN READ
0
Epigenetic effects on the evolution of behavior
2 MIN READ
0
Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning vs operant conditioning (“training”)
2 MIN READ
0
Pheromones and the phylogeny of operant and classical conditioning
2 MIN READ
0
A neuroscientific perspective on neurobiological differences in everyone
2 MIN READ
0
Brain Activation Areas of Sexual Arousal with Olfactory Stimulation in Men
2 MIN READ
0
No New Neurons for Smell?
2 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones and the visual appeal of other people (Part one)
2 MIN READ
0
More than speculation: adaptive evolution in species from microbes to man
2 MIN READ
0
Creation vs Evolution? Pre-existing genetic variation, not random mutation
2 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromones in Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology
2 MIN READ
0
They are what they eat, and so are we
2 MIN READ
0
A Preoccupation With Modesty…
2 MIN READ
0
Pheromones and food odors add more than just color to your world
4 MIN READ
0
Human skull study causes evolutionary headache
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human pheromones provide clues to personality
< 1 MIN READ
0
Show me the science!
5 MIN READ
0
Baiting the behaviorist(s)
3 MIN READ
0
Olfactory/pheromonal conditioning of stimulus-reaction times
< 1 MIN READ
0
Pheromone-enhanced behavior in sexually inexperienced females
2 MIN READ
0
Scents of Adolescence: Are you blind?
< 1 MIN READ
0
Human Pheromones Affect Women's Behavior
2 MIN READ
0
Dogs and humans: Then and now
< 1 MIN READ
0
Wikipedia comments by James V. Kohl
5 MIN READ
0
Pheromones and olfaction in the birds and the bees: from yeasts to you
2 MIN READ
0
Is it what he or she sees in you, or is it your pheromones?
2 MIN READ
0
Conditioned sexual arousal to odor
2 MIN READ
0
Comparing visual to olfactory/pheromonal input
< 1 MIN READ
0
Pheromones of pregnant women effect prolactin in men
< 1 MIN READ
0
Scent of a woman: Men’s Testosterone Responses to Women's Scent
< 1 MIN READ
0
