Kisspeptin is a hormone that stimulates the areas of the brain in men related to love and sexual arousal. In addition, it also improves your mood. According to scientists from Imperial College London (Great Britain), the discovery may facilitate the fight against psychosexual disorders, which are often behind male sterility.
Most fertility studies and treatments focus on biological factors that can make it difficult for partners to conceive a baby naturally. These factors are, of course, extremely important in the context of reproduction, but a large role in this process is also played by mental factors that are not fully researched at present – comments the project coordinator, Prof. Waljit Dhillo.
The study involved 29 volunteers who were given either an injection of kisspeptin or a placebo (inert agent), and then viewed pictures of various situations – negative, romantic (some of a sexual nature) or neutral – and faces expressing various emotions. During this time, researchers monitored participants’ brain activity using MRI imaging.
It turned out that men exposed to kisspeptin responded more strongly to romantic and sexual stimuli. The hormone also activated the areas of the brain related to the feeling of excitement and love in them. Interestingly, the men who were given the hormone coped better with negative emotions and enjoyed a much better mood than the men who were injected with a placebo.
– Our study shows that kisspeptin increases brain activity related to sex and romantic feelings, and also reduces negative mood. This suggests that it can be used to treat psychosexual disorders and depression. More research is needed to confirm this, sums up one of the researchers, Dr. Alexander Comninos.