New theory for paraphilia cause?

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Pablote
New theory for paraphilia cause?

I can hardly call it "new", since any available sources seem to be about 4-5 years old, but I can't recall anyone ever bringing this up here before, so I figured why not.

 

Since the dawn of psychology, the general theory surrounding paraphilias was the brain sort of classically conditioning itself to associate something with sexual arousal, so the presense of a fetish would be like a pavlovian reaction.

But some new(ish) research posits that it might actually be tied to disturbed lateralization in the brain.

If you don't know what lateralization is, basically, we have two hemispheres of our brain that, in theory, perform the same functions, but certain circumstances in our prenatal environment lead us to lateralize certain brain functions, or delegate most of the work to one hemisphere or the other.  For example, most people lateralize their language functions to the left hemisphere of their brain (90-95% of right handed people, 61-73% of left handed people).  But sometimes, those circumstances in our prenatal environment will lead to a disturbed lateralization.  A disturbance is a tiny error that causes the brain to involve one of the hemispheres more than it should.  So, for people with the language functions lateralized to the left hemisphere of their brain, normally the right hemisphere barely registers any activity; but with a disturbed lateralization, it involves the right hemisphere more than it's supposed to.  This doesn't sound like it should be a problem, except the function is already lateralized to the dominant left hemisphere and the underdeveloped right hemisphere has no idea what the fuck it's doing, so some wires get crossed, and in the case of language functions, we get stuttering, dyslexia, aphasia, and other language disorders.

So.  Some researchers hypothesize that that's what paraphilias are; our brain's attempt to make sense out of the normal sexual functions of our brain with a dash of who the fuck knows what else from the non-dominant half.

 

To test this, there was a study conducted in 2008 that involved 200 heterosexual men (to further their hypothesis, the ratio of paraphilias in men vs. women is about 20:1, roughly the same ratio as other disturbed lateralization disorders).  The study examined their sexual fantasies with the WSFQ (Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire) and neurodevelopmental markers like sibling sex composition, handedness, parent's age at birth, 2D:4D finger length ratios, and asymmetry of finger lengths and wrist widths.

The results showed that higher levels of paraphilia had a strong correlation with having greater numbers of older brothers, higher right-hand 2D:4D, and higher tendency of left handedness.

So, in conclusion, the study suggests that the root of paraphilias lies in developmental instability and maternal immunity, which means (in these males anyway) that excessive exposure to estrogen led to small abnormalities in the development of their brain.

Pablote

I can say that I'm a straight male, right handed, with one older brother, no younger siblings, high 2D:4D ratio in both hands, and whose parents were in their early 40s when I was conceived.  I used to have a stuttering problem when I was younger but have since gotten over, and I have ADHD and OCD (yes, at the same time.  It's like there's a party in my frontal lobe).  I would say that my paraphilia-level is high, to the extent that I have a much more difficult time getting off if there is nothing present to appeal to my fetishes.

Blue_Eyes
Blue_Eyes's picture

....neat?

Those of you who volunteered to be injected with praying mantis DNA, I've got some good news and some bad news. Bad news is we're postponing those tests indefinitely. Good news is we've got a much better test for you: fighting an army of mantis men.

LutherVKane
LutherVKane's picture

Lots of good stuff here.

For me, the most interesting bit about this is the 20:1 male:female ratio for paraphilia. I've long wondered if the skewed gender ratio in the community was somehow manufactured (i.e., there was something about the community that was inherently off-putting for women) or if there were simply far more men into inflation than women.

The self-reported gender ratio at this site is 5:1. If the 20:1 ratio is true for inflationists, then the notable issue isn't how few women there are around here, but how many.

pjoker
pjoker's picture

I always thought the idea of paraphilias being the result of classical conditioning was flimsy at best. I can see how it might play a role in diaper and spanking fetishes, but I don't know what the hell conditioned me to respond to inflation in this way. Our attraction to facial symmetry or body proportions is not the result of conditioning, and neither is homosexuality. I think there's a lot of room for other causes.

Interesting that it happens more in men, and a bit disappointing. Although I wonder whether a sexual experience with someone who also has an inflation fetish would be more satisfying than with someone who doesn't have it and is purely using it to get you off?

About 2D:4D ratio... A "high" ratio is longer index finger vs ring finger? My ring fingers are way the hell longer than my index fingers.

Also, weird personal fact, I'm right handed but can only wank with my left hand. If I use my right hand my brain hates it.

Pablote

Digit ratio is calculated by dividing the lengths of the index finger by the ring finger on the right hand.  If the index finger is longer, you get a number higher than one, and if the ring finger is longer, it's lower.

 

This sort of thing is more common in men because males do a lot more changing pre-birth.  The Y chromosome is just a mutated X chromosome, so the default gender for everything is female.  If you're a male, that means you started out as a female, and your genes triggered the release of certain hormones from your mother's uterus which physically transformed you into a male.  Fun fact: the slightly raised ridge of flesh that runs down the center of the bottom of your dick, over your balls, all the way back to your anus is called the perineal raphe, which is where your female reproductive system turned inside out, turned into male genitals, and fused shut in utero.

Fun facts aside, this also means that our female brain has to turn into a male brain.  Since the brain is physically transforming from one state to another, just the slightest, tiniest misstep in the process can lead to debilitating mental disorders.  Hence, men are much more prone to this variety of mental disorder.

 

On a tangentially related note, this is also one of the leading theories on the cause of homosexuality, since it is statistially more prevalent in males than females.

AshyPie
AshyPie's picture

Science is weird! I have no idea what anyone is saying! And what about the people who think this was caused by an event in there childhood?

Also the skewed gender ratio here comes from:
Guys that are gay and deceptive
Guys that are liars
Guys that are inbarrased
Girls that are confused
Girls that are incognito to gather intel
And Girls that have dicks

I'm a pretty kitty~

Pablote

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I think I know what you're trying to say, but you might want to rephrase some of your points there.

You're saying that the poll was anonymous, and there could be enough born males that identify as females on this sight to skew the results, even counting born females who identify as males, yes? That's possible, but there isn't really an ethical way of finding out for sure, unfortunately.

I don't think there's anyone on here who honestly believes it was caused by an event in their childhood, but everyone can tell you an experience from their childhood where they essentially discovered they had the fetish. We still don't know the cause of paraphilias, but that was the assumption that the field of neuroscience had, so it was the best we had to go on. And, that's what this thread is about.

Was there any part of it that you were especially confused on? I can try to clarify some things for you.

AshyPie
AshyPie's picture

Well statistically there are more transwomen then transmen but the point was more that there is a larger chance that men choose to lie about they're gender then there is for women. However I thought I made it very clear that I am dumb and the subject matter didn't intrest me… so I'm surprised anyone decided to take me seriously at all… perhaps you should use your brain to contradict more intelligent people than myself…
Also I'm pretty sure that the fetish for me isn't explained by any of the current theories… if you still care to respond to me perhaps do it over PM… =P

I'm a pretty kitty~