Alcohol, selective attention and sexual arousal in men

Thirty-two men social drinkers were randomly assigned to the cells of a balanced placebo design to investigate the effects of expected and actual alcohol consumption on sexual responsiveness. Using a dichotic listening task, erotic and nonerotic information was presented in the nonattended channel while subjects performed simple (low-attention demand) and complex (high-attention demand) numerical tasks presented in the attended channel. Penile tumescence was recorded continuously in response to all audiotaped information. The high-attention demand task significantly interfered with sexual arousal compared with the low-attention demand task, primarily because of the significant suppressant effect of alcohol on arousal during the complex task. The lack of differences in tumescence under the two cognitive tasks when subjects were sober is inconsistent with the cognitive interference model of sexual arousal. Alcohol expectations increased arousal during the low-attention demand task, whereas actual alcohol consumption decreased arousal only during the high-attention demand task. Both effects are attributed to the different effects of these separate variables on attentional processes. The clinical implications are discussed.