In this week's episode Anya and Alex speak to Natalie Ertl (@NatalieErtl1) who is currently a research assistant at Invicro and PhD candidate at Imperial College London, specialising in functional MRI applications in psychopharmacology. With Natalie is Dr Matt Wall (@m_wall) who is a psychologist, cognitive neuroscientist and fMRI specialist at Invicro and Imperial College London researching cannabis, psychedelics, sex hormones and addiction.

We talk about current understanding of what happens in the brain with sex and sexual desire, and current theories on what might contribute to difficulties with sexual desire or enjoying sex. From there, we find out what kind of drugs are being tested and how researching sexual function works. And what discussion about sex would be complete without a mention of Freud? We hope you enjoy!

Further reading on the studies mentioned:

Bremelanotide (women): https://www.jci.org/articles/view/152341

Kisspeptin (women): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2797718?resultClick=3

Kisspeptin (men): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800937

Interviewed by Dr. Anya Borissova with Dr. Alex Curmi Give feedback here - [email protected] - Follow us here: Twitter @thinkingmindpod Instagram @thinkingmindpodcast

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