Dr. Meston received her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1995. Her primary area of research over the past six years has been the role of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in female sexual arousal. For over 30 years, clinicians and researchers in the field of human sexuality have worked largely under the assumption that the SNS plays an inhibitory role, and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) plays a facilitatory role in initiating and maintaining sexual arousal. However, direct, empirical evidence for a PNS -mediated sexual response in women has not yet been offered. Determination of the precise role of SNS influences on sexual arousal has important implications for deriving an etiological theory of sexual dysfunction and for developing effective treatments for the alleviation of sexual difficulties. Her laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin is one of only three laboratories in North America with the capability to examine female sexual function using psychophysiological techniques (vaginal photoplethysmography).

A second area of research she has focused on is the link between early childhood abuse and later, adult sexual function. Although a number of researchers have reported a broad spectrum of sexual difficulties among female abuse survivors, little research has aimed specifically at understanding the psychological mechanisms by which early sexual abuse experiences precipitate, magnify, or sustain sexual problems in adulthood. Her research in this area focuses on examining potential differences in cognitive processes between sexually abused and non sexually abused women using implicit methodologies such as the categorical organization of knowledge about the sexual self, and information processing theory to examine the way in which sexual information is organized and stored in memory. The purpose of these studies is to help elucidate sexually relevant cognitive processes which may contribute to adult sexual and intimate relational problems linked to sexual abuse experiences in childhood.

Representative Publications

Meston, C. M., & McCall, K. (2005). Dopamine and norepinephrine responses to film-induced sexual arousal in sexually functional and sexually dysfunctional women. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 31, 303-317.

Rellini, A., & Meston, C. M. (2006). Physiological sexual arousal in women with a history of child sexual abuse. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 32, 5-22.

Rellini, A. H., & Meston, C. M. (2006). The sensitivity of event logs, self-administered questionnaires, and photoplethysmography to detect treatment-induced changes in female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) diagnosis. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 3, 283-291.

Meston, C. M. (2006). The effects of state and trait self-focused attention on sexual arousal in sexually functional and dysfunctional women. Behavior Research and Therapy, 44, 515-532.

Meston, C. M., Rellini, A. H., & Heiman, J. R. (2006). Women's history of sexual abuse, their sexuality, and sexual self-schemas. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 229-236.

Bradford, A. & Meston, C. M. (2006). The impact of anxiety on sexual arousal in women. Behavior Research and Therapy, 44, 1067-1077.

Farmer, M., & Meston, C. M. (In press). Predictors of condom use self-efficacy in an ethnically diverse university sample. Archives of Sexual Behavior.

McCall, K. M., & Meston, C. M. (In press). Cues resulting in desire for sexual activity in women, Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Rellini, A., & Meston, C. M. (In press). Sexual desire and linguistic analysis: A comparison of sexually abused and non-abused women. Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Bradford, A. & Meston, C.M. (In press). Sexual outcomes and satisfaction with hysterectomy: Influence of patient education. Journal of Sexual Medicine. Blackwell Publishing.

Updated 9 February 2009
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