User:Zyarymowich/sandbox

Genital Thermography
Genital Thermography refers to the use of infrared thermographic imaging cameras by psychologists in research as a physiological measure of sexual arousal. Increases in temperature in the genital area are indicative of increases in genital peripheral blood flow, which is an indirect signal of sexual arousal. Researchers began using the technique in the 1980s, therefore it is relatively new. There are several advantages of using this methodology the first being that it is a non-invasive procedure making it is less likely to bias the results. Secondly, it can be used on any variation of genitals, making it easier to compare across groups. Finally, it is measured on a known, absolute scale, namely temperature. Studies using thermography have generally focused on patterns of normative sexual arousal, or sexual arousal in clinical populations with sexual dysfunctions

Validity
Thermography was shown to have a significant positive association with penile plethysmography which supports its convergent validity. Studies which compared genital thermography to self-reported arousal found them to be significantly positively correlated, which supports its concurrent validity. Studies using thermography have shown that changes in genital temperature occurred only during the presentation of erotic stimuli as opposed to emotional or neutral stimuli which indicates discriminant validity. In addition, changes in temperature in response to erotic stimuli was found to be specific to the genital region which further supports discriminant validity