Understanding Sexual Partner Preference: from Biological Diversity to Psychiatric Disorders

Purpose of Review The aim of this review is to provide current evidence on the biological and psychological mechanisms that underlie sexual partner preferences (SPP) in humans and animals. Recent Findings SPP depend mainly on prenatal (adaptive) organization of the brain, but can be drastically modified via learning under enhanced dopaminergic (DA) and oxytocinergic (OT) activity. Summary SPP can be categorized as in those directed towards partners who display indicators of biological fitness (IBF) or towards partners who do not show those indicators. The IBF function as unconditioned stimuli that presumably activate prenatally organized brain areas that mediate the salience of those stimuli. However, we discuss some evidence indicating that SPP not directed towards IBF (i.e., paraphilias) might be consequence of a learning process that occurs under enhanced DA or OT activity, resulting in new powerful learning with additional brain areas involved.