ST. LOUIS, MO — For decades women have insisted and been assured that they are simply “not visual,” like men. But a recent study reveals that erotic images absolutely have an effect on women.According to the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis research, when women look at erotic images, their brains get very excited, with electrical activity increasing in speed by about 20-percent.

Andrey P. Anokhin, PhD research assistant and psychiatry professor at the university did not expect this. “We believed both pleasant and disturbing images would evoke a rapid response,” she explains, “but erotic scenes always elicited the strongest response.”

Usually, men subjectively rate erotic material much higher than women,” she continues. “So, based on those data, we would expect lower responses in women, but that was not the case. Women have responses as strong as those seen in men.”

By attaching electrodes to the scalps of 264 women, researchers were able to study their brainwave activity as they looked at a series of 55 color slides ranging from photos of threatening dogs to sporting activities to erotically posed, semi-clothed couples. The results, published in the journal Brain Research, show that the sexy photos elicited a stronger and quicker electrical response in the women’s brains than did any other images, regardless of how disturbing or pleasant the other photos were.

Additionally, researchers noticed that the erotic images were processed in entirely different brain structures than other visuals, suggesting that different circuits may be involved in making sense of sexually based visual stimuli. Adokhin believes that this may be due to evolutionary processes that have developed preferential treatment for things of a sexual nature.