Nicole Prause

Prause obtained her doctorate in 2007 at Indiana University Bloomington, with joint supervision by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. Her areas of concentration were neuroscience and statistics. Her clinical internship, in neuropsychological assessment and behavioral medicine, was with the VA Boston Healthcare System's Psychology Internship Training Program.{{efn|At the time, known as the Boston Consortium in Clinical Psychology}} Her research fellowship was in couples' treatment for alcoholism with Timothy O'Farrell at Harvard University.{{cite web|url=http://www.span-lab.com/about/people.php|title=SPAN Lab People|access-date=2016-08-30|author=Sexual Psychophysiology and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory}}

Prause became a tenure track faculty member at Idaho State University at the age of 29. After three years there, she accepted a position as a Research Scientist at the Mind Research Network, a neuroimaging facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2012, Prause was elected a full member of the International Academy of Sex Research and accepted a position as a Research Scientist on faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles in the David Geffen School of Medicine. While there, she was promoted to Associate Research Scientist in 2014. Institutional attitudes towards sex research and ongoing safety threats from anti-porn organizations prompted her to found Liberos LLC in 2015.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moXtp_OC_cc |title=Why Do Anti-Porn Activists Want to Kill a Scientist? |date=23 October 2020 |last=Barnett |first=Jerry |type=Video |time=28:30 |access-date=29 October 2020 |via=YouTube}}{{SPS|date=September 2022}}{{cite web|url=http://liberoscenter.com/|at=A message from the founder|title=Liberos|last=Prause|first=Nicole|access-date=2016-08-30}} This private research institute and biotechnology company is funded entirely by grants from the federal government and private grants.{{cite web|url=http://liberoscenter.com/about/|title=About :: Liberos|author=Liberos LLC|access-date=2016-08-30}} She is also a licensed psychologist in California.{{cite web|url=https://search.dca.ca.gov/details/6001/PSY/27778/92a8979dc73da22bead8216d4a480cb3|title=DCA - Search Results|website=DCA License Search|access-date=10 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210112317/https://search.dca.ca.gov/details/6001/PSY/27778/92a8979dc73da22bead8216d4a480cb3|archive-date=10 February 2021}}

Prause was the lead author on the first study to apply brain stimulation to alter sexual responsiveness, using a high frequency form known as Theta Burst Stimulation (TBS).{{cite journal|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=11|issue=11|at= e0165646 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0165646|last1=Prause|first1=Nicole|last2=Siegle|first2=Greg J.|last3=Deblieck|first3=Choi|last4=Wu|first4=Allan|last5=Iacoboni|first5=Marco|title=EEG to Primary Rewards: Predictive Utility and Malleability by Brain Stimulation|year=2016|pmc=5130195|pmid=27902711|bibcode = 2016PLoSO..1165646P|doi-access=free}} This study was also the first in the US to use primary sexual rewards in the laboratory, adopting from a history of this approach in European laboratories, to overcome the problem of sex films used as secondary reinforcers in previous research.{{cn|date=February 2021}} This is thought to raise new possibilities for intervention for those with high or low sex drive, which could be altered semi-permanently by repeated TBS.{{Cite web |last=Wilson |first=Claire |date=30 November 2016 |title=Zap to the brain alters libido in unique sex study |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2114796-zap-to-the-brain-alters-libido-in-unique-sex-study/ |website=New Scientist}}

Prause co-authored a study on the neurophysiology of porn addiction published in 2013, which concluded that hypersexuality might be better understood as a "non-pathological variation of high sexual desire", rather than an addiction.{{cite journal|title=Sexual desire, not hypersexuality, is related to neurophysiological responses elicited by sexual images|last1=Steele|first1=Vaughn R.|last2=Staley|first2=Cameron|last3=Fong|first3=Timothy|last4=Prause|first4=Nicole|journal=Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology|volume=3|at=20770|date=2013|url=http://www.socioaffectiveneuroscipsychol.net/index.php/snp/article/view/20770|doi=10.3402/snp.v3i0.20770|pmc=3960022|pmid=24693355}}

In collaboration with psychologist Geoffrey Miller at the Mind Research Network, a neuroimaging facility in Albuquerque, Prause conducted a study in 2015 (N = 75) concerning women's preference in penis size, their preference across different kinds of relationships, and how important they considered penis size in the context of traits in a male partner.{{cite journal|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=10|issue=9|at=e0133079|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0133079|last1=Prause|first1=Nicole|last2=Park|first2=Jaymie|last3=Leung|first3=Shannon|last4=Miller|first4=Geoffrey|title=Women's Preferences for Penis Size: A New Research Method Using Selection among 3D Models|year=2015|pmid=26332467|pmc=4558040|bibcode = 2015PLoSO..1033079P|doi-access=free}} The study was the first to use 3d printed penes to rummage through and handle, rather than flat images. Results suggested that most women preferred a penis only slightly larger than average size, that their preference differs slightly across different types of relationships, and that they found penis size to be relatively unimportant in a partner, less important than cooking skills or dress, and only more important than eye color and car type.{{Cite web|url=http://thematinggrounds.com/dr-nicole-prause-interview-part-1/|title=Dr. Nicole Prause Interview (Part 1)|access-date=2016-08-30|last=Max|first=Tucker}} Twenty percent of participants reported never having experienced sexual intercourse prior to the start of the study. A similar percentage reported having ended a relationship "in part" because of penis size.{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/02/women-pick-the-perfect-3d-printed-penis.html|last=Allen|first=Samantha|date=2015|title=Women Pick the Perfect 3D-Printed Penis|newspaper=The Daily Beast|access-date=2016-08-30}} Blueprints of all the model phalluses used in the study are publicly available.{{cite web|url=http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:518401/|last=Prause|first=Nicole|date=2014|title=Penile size preference study from UCLA|access-date=2016-08-30}}

Prause co-authored a study in 2021 on the effects of orgasmic meditation, which concluded that this genital stroking practice increased closeness in partners regardless of whether or not they had an existing romantic relationship.{{cite journal|journal=PLOS ONE|last1=Prause|first1=Nicole|last2=Siegle|first2=Greg|last3=Coan|first3=James|title=Partner intimate touch is associated with increased interpersonal closeness, especially in non-romantic partners|year=2021|volume=16|issue=3|pages=e0246065|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0246065|pmid=33690603|pmc=7946224|bibcode=2021PLoSO..1646065P|doi-access=free}}

Prause has appeared in media education about sexual science, including: PBS Nova Secret Lives of Scientists,{{Cite web |date=July 19, 2016 |title=(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Do Science) |website=PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/nicole-prause-you-gotta-fight-for-your-right-to-do-science/}} the Today show's Brain power series,{{Cite web |date=February 9, 2017 |title=Brain Power TODAY: Scientists study the healing power of sex |url=https://www.today.com/video/brain-power-today-scientists-study-the-healing-power-of-sex-873444931602?fbclid=IwAR2mnctuDDoNPIdp73oHfDnNv_bG5js1DAwHZ0y23RLR4k1ziHKJsNQbl2s |publisher=Today Show}} and After Porn Ends 2.{{Cite web |title= After Porn Ends 2|date=February 9, 2017|website=IMDB|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168832/|publisher=IMDB}} {{Tertiary source inline|date=September 2022}}

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Category:21st-century American women scientists

Category:American neuroscientists

Category:American sexologists

Category:American women neuroscientists

Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Women sexologists

Category:1978 births