Modification in Functional Connectivity of Resting State Networks in Patients Affected by Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction During Visual Erotic Stimulation: An fMRI Study

Nicoletta Cera¹, Ezio Domenico Di Pierro², Gianni Perrucci¹, Gianna Sepede¹, Francesco Gambi¹, Armando Tartaro¹, Carlo Vicentini², Cosimo Del Gratta¹, Gian Luca Romani¹, Antonio Ferretti¹

In this fMRI study differences in resting state networks between patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction and healthy controls during visual erotic stimulation were investigated using independent component analysis. Compared to controls, patients showed a decreased functional connectivity in the dorsal attention and salience networks, suggesting a failure of emotion regulation and a reduced coding of salience of visual erotic stimuli in psychogenic patients.