Kisspeptin modulates sexual and emotional brain processing in humans.
Comninos. Alexander N AN; Wall. Matthew B MB; Demetriou. Lysia L; Shah. Amar J AJ; Clarke. Sophie A SA; Narayanaswamy. Shakunthala S; Nesbitt. Alexander A; Izzi-Engbeaya. Chioma C; Prague. Julia K JK; Abbara. Ali A; Ratnasabapathy. Risheka R; Salem. Victoria V; Nijher. Gurjinder M GM; Jayasena. Channa N CN; Tanner. Mark M; Bassett. Paul P; Mehta. Amrish A; Rabiner. Eugenii A EA; Hönigsperger. Christoph C; Silva. Meire Ribeiro MR; Brandtzaeg. Ole Kristian OK; Lundanes. Elsa E; Wilson. Steven Ray SR; Brown. Rachel C RC; Thomas. Sarah A SA; Bloom. Stephen R SR; Dhillo. Waljit S WS
Key Findings
- Kisspeptin boosted limbic brain activity in response to sexual and couple‑bonding images
- The increased brain activity was linked to higher feelings of reward, drive, and better mood, and less sexual aversion
- Kisspeptin administration reduced negative mood overall
Practical Outcomes
- Kisspeptin may have potential as a mood and sexual‑desire enhancer, but the study is early‑stage and doesn’t provide dosage or safety guidance. Enthusiasts should wait for more data before trying it as a supplement, and consider it primarily a research insight rather than a proven protocol.
Summary
A small study gave kisspeptin to young men and found it lit up brain areas linked to sex and emotional bonding, made people feel more motivated and in a better mood, and lowered negative feelings. While it hints that kisspeptin could boost sexual desire and mood, the research doesn’t give dosing details or long‑term safety, so it’s more of an interesting clue than a ready‑to‑use hack.
Abstract
Sex, emotion, and reproduction are fundamental and tightly entwined aspects of human behavior. At a population level in humans, both the desire for sexual stimulation and the desire to bond with a partner are important precursors to reproduction. However, the relationships between these processes are incompletely understood. The limbic brain system has key roles in sexual and emotional behaviors, and is a likely candidate system for the integration of behavior with the hormonal reproductive axis. We investigated the effects of kisspeptin, a recently identified key reproductive hormone, on limbic brain activity and behavior. Using a combination of functional neuroimaging and hormonal and psychometric analyses, we compared the effects of kisspeptin versus vehicle administration in 29 healthy heterosexual young men. We demonstrated that kisspeptin administration enhanced limbic brain activity specifically in response to sexual and couple-bonding stimuli. Furthermore, kisspeptin's enhancement of limbic brain structures correlated with psychometric measures of reward, drive, mood, and sexual aversion, providing functional significance. In addition, kisspeptin administration attenuated negative mood. Collectively, our data provide evidence of an undescribed role for kisspeptin in integrating sexual and emotional brain processing with reproduction in humans. These results have important implications for our understanding of reproductive biology and are highly relevant to the current pharmacological development of kisspeptin as a potential therapeutic agent for patients with common disorders of reproductive function. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Wellcome Trust (Ref 080268), and the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Study Information
pubmed
2017
2017-01-23T00:00:00.000Z
10.1172/jci89519