**Abstract (English)**
According to the evolutionary approach to the development of sexual response, the first step is to notice and pay attention to sexual cues. This implies possible innate attention bias towards sexual versus neutral stimuli in both women and men. To this day the only research concerning attention and sexual stimuli employed sexually loaded words. Pictures from IAPS (International Affective Picture System) and NAPS (Nencki Affective Picture System) were categorized by participants. Selection of these pictures was used in the DPT (Dot-Probe Task) paradigm to assess the possible attention bias within a sample of 115 students (53% females, mean age ≈ 22). The analysis revealed moderately large attention bias for sexual pictures (d = .485, t = 2.65, p < .01).
**Introduction**
The attention towards a sexual stimulus is a necessary part of a sexual reaction emergence. According to the evolutionary approach to sexual research, a specific kind of attention bias – for sexual stimuli – should be detectable in humans. Until today, all but one study utilized only verbal stimuli. We decided to assess the potential attention bias for sexual stimuli using pictures, adapting the research design from one previous study1.
**Methods**
The DPT (Dot-Probe Task) paradigm was used for the assessment of the attention bias within a student population (n = 115 participants, 53 % females, mean age ≈ 22). As stimuli, 114 pictures from IAPS2 (International Affective Picture System) and NAPS3 (Nencki Affective Picture System) were carefully chosen. Before the task, the BDI-II4,5 (Beck Depression Inventory II), SOI-R6 (The revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory) and ERQ7 (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire) were administrated to the participants.
**Results**
The participants responded more quickly to pictures showing any kind of sexual content (mean = – .036, sd = 0.14) in comparison to neutral (mean = .035, sd = .15) pictures (d = .485, t(118) = 2.65, p < .01). The magnitude of the attention bias did not correlate with the depression severity as measured by BDI-II (spearman's rho = .069, p = .47) and correlated weakly with the overall orientation towards uncommitted sex as measured by SOI-R (spearman's rho = .252, p < .01).
**Sources**
1. Prause, N., Janssen, E., & Hetrick, W. P. (2008). Attention and emotional responses to sexual stimuli and their relationship to sexual desire. *Archives of sexual behavior*, *37*(6), 934-949.
2. Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1997). *International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Technical Manual and Affective Ratings*. NIMH Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention.
3. Marchewka, A., Zurawski, L., Jednoróg, K., & Grabowska, A. (2014). The Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS): Introduction to a novel, standardized, wide-range, high-quality, realistic picture database. *Behavior Research Methods*, *46*(2), 596–610.
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5. Preiss M., Vacíř K. (1999). *BDI-II. Beckova sebeposuzovací škála pro dospělé*. Brno: Psychodiagnostika.
6. Penke, L., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2008). Beyond global sociosexual orientations: A more differentiated look at sociosexuality and its effects on courtship and romantic relationships. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*, *95*, 1113-1135.
7. Gross, J.J., & John, O.P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*, *85*, 348-362.
**Conferences**
- PhD Existence 2019 ([link][1])
- Kognitivní škola 2019 ([link][2])
[1]: https://phdexistence.cz/phdexistence.cz)
[2]: http://kognitivniskola.cz/.cz/phdexistence.cz)
**Funding (Czech):**
Grantová podpora: Tento poster je výsledkem badatelské činnosti podporované projektem Grantové agentury České republiky (reg. č. GA17-11004S) a projektem číslo LO1611 „Udržitelnost pro Národní ústav duševního zdraví“ za finanční podpory MŠMT v rámci programu NPU I.
