David Linden: Love, Sex and Brain Evolution

[55:18]

Prof. David Linden – The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Neuroscience

Humans are truly the all-time twisted sex deviants of the mammalian world. I’m not saying this because some of us get turned on by the sight of automobile exhaust systems, the smell of unwashed feet, or the idea of traffic cops in bondage. Rather, I mean that the most prosaic aspects of sexual activity in humans are far outside the mainstream of behavior for most of our closest animal relatives. How did it come to be this way? The spectrum of human amorous and sexual behavior is wide and deeply influenced by culture, but we all share certain evolved neural substrates that guide this central aspect of our humanity.

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