Revista Internacional de Saúde Mental e Psiquiatria

Sexual Excitement as a Function of Stimulus Novelty Level and its Repetitions in a Male Pig-tail Macaque (Macaca nemestrina) Model (A Medical Hypothesis)

Dwi Atmoko Agung Nugroho

Aim: The decline in sexual excitement and even sexual disturbance becomes a serious psychiatric problem that accompanies depression. This article would like to demonstrate a principle of behavior that can ultimately become a solution by controlling the number of stimulus repetitions then this is an effective way to maintain the novelty of stimulation that can regain the excitement of behavior in terms of reaction time and duration.

Method: An eight years old male pigtail macaque named "John" who lives in an individual cage (5x5x5m). The researcher walked closer to the subject enclosure while carrying the video camera on the ‘on’ position, then calling the subject-name with short voice: “Hello John!” (when arrived in front of the cage). The researcher recorded the subject response at a distance of 0.2 meters from the cage. The researcher did this stimulation as much as 1 time a day at 07.00 am (morning) and did the repetitions for 4 days in a row. Based on video recordings, then reaction times into scratching behavior toward his sexual organs such as penis and anus by his hands and their behavior-durations analysed by using real time player in seconds.

Result and conclusion: If the number of repetitions of the stimulus increased (thus lowering the stimulus novelty level slowly) then the time into the sexual response will be longer (or slower) as the addition of the number of repetitions of the stimulus. If the number of repetitions of the stimulus were increased (thus decreasing the stimulus novelty level slowly) then the duration of the sexual response will be shorter as the number of repetitions of the stimulus increases.