Singers Beyonce Knowles and Christina Hendricks are both known for their  curves.

Staring at a curvy female can give men the same high as drinking alcohol or taking drugs, research revealed today.  According to the study, seeing an hourglass figure activates the part of men’s brains associated with feelings of ‘reward’. (Pics)

 

Scientists say their findings explain why curvier women, such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce Knowles, are considered sexy.

And they believe the study could also offer an insight into the male preoccupation with pornography.

Researchers used a sample of 14 men with an average age of 25 and showed them pictures of the naked derrieres of seven women.

They then carried out cosmetic surgery on the women, redistributing fat from their waists to the backsides but not changing their overall weight.

Marilyn Monroe

Brain scans of the men revealed that looking at the post-surgery women activated parts of the brain linked with rewards, including regions associated with responses to drugs and alcohol.

The scientists said women with hour-glass figures are more likely to be fertile, have healthier children and are less likely to have illnesses like heart disease.

Jennifer Lopez

‘These findings suggest that an hourglass figure activates brain centres that drive attention toward females that represent the highest-quality reproductive partners,’ the researchers wrote in the journal PLoS.

It could explain why the shape is popular in cultures around the world.

Researcher Steven Platek, an evolutionary cognitive neuroscientist at Georgia Gwinnett College, in Georgia, USA, said: ‘There’s more to it than buying Playboy, Maxim, or FHM.

‘These findings could help further our understanding pornography addiction and related disorders, such as erectile dysfunction in the absence of pornography.

Alecia Keys

‘The findings could also lend to the scientific inquiry about sexual infidelity.’

The scientists also found that changes in a woman’s body-mass index (BMI) only affected brain areas linked to simple visual appreciation of size and shape.

Mr Platek said this may be evidence that body fat influences judgments of female beauty due more to society’s norms than the way the brain is wired.

Mr Platek and his colleague Devendra Singh detailed their findings in the journal PLoS ONE.

Via Daily Mail