Study Looks at Nude Images’ Effect on the Brain
Written on November 26, 2011 by Jordan Ballard
How the human brain perceives nudity is boosted at an early stage of visual processing, researchers say, and that ability may be tied to mating.
Most people are attracted to pictures of nude or scantily clad bodies, the Finnish team note. Previous brain imaging studies have pinpointed areas in the brain that specialize in detecting human bodies in the environment but it wasn’t known whether the brain processes clothed and nude bodies in different ways.
In this study, Jari K. Hietanen, of the University of Tampere, and a colleague monitored the brain activity of volunteers as they looked at pictures of men and women who wore everyday clothes or swimsuits, or were nude.
The results showed that the brain processes pictures of nude bodies more efficiently than pictures of clothed bodies. Males’ brain responses were stronger for nude females than nude males, but females’ responses to nudity weren’t affected by the gender of the bodies.
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