Self control of penile tumescence
Date
1978
Authors
Kierans, William John
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Abstract
The study of biofeedback training of increase in penile circumference commences with a review of some methodological issues in the field and a discussion of the physiology of erection, a response under primary control of the autonomic nervous system. A review of studies on the control of erectile processes suggests hypotheses that should predict the effects of two visual stimulation conditions, erotic and landscape slides, and two biofeedback training conditions, contingent and yoked control. Thirty-two university students in 2 x 2 independent groups design responded with penile circumference changes that were recorded over twenty-four minutes of visual stimulation and feedback training by means of a penile plethysmograph. Two dependent measures were recorded as deviations in millimeters from a pre-experimental baseline flaccidity measure, the first being peak erection during the whole session and the second being tumescence level attained at the end of training. Multivariate Analyses of Variance on the two dependent measures did not indicate a significant effect of biofeedback training, erotic visual stimulation or an interaction between feedback and visual stimulation. There was a large error variance associated with the peak erection measure. The measure of tumescence level at the end of training tended to differentiate between feedback conditions but this effect marginally failed to reach significance. The results suggested several post hoc analyses to investigate further the large variation singularly associated with the feedback treatment. These analyses suggested that the feedback technique produced increase "within" and "between" subject variation.