London - Men given an injection of a naturally occurring hormone showed enhanced activity in brain regions involved with sexual arousal and romantic love and a decline in negative moods.
It also helped treat some psycho-sexual disorders that commonly occur in patients with infertility, according to a recent study.
Kisspeptin has been linked to sexy and romantic feelings and is essential to the body’s reproductive system.
“Our study indicates that kisspeptin plays a role in stimulating some of the emotions and responses that lead to sex and reproduction,” said lead author Waljit Dhillo, Professor at Imperial College London.
“Kisspeptin boosts sexual and romantic brain activity as well as decreasing negative mood. This raises the interesting possibility that kisspeptin may have uses in treating psycho-sexual disorders and depression, which are major health problems that often occur together,” added Alexander Comninos from Imperial College London.
For the study, the team involved 29 healthy heterosexual young men who were given either an injection of kisspeptin or placebo who were shown a variety of images, including sexual and non-sexual romantic pictures of couples.