JAMES G. PFAUS
Professor, Center for Studies
in Behavioral Neurobiology
Concordia University
Montréal, Québec© DAVID GIRALAs an undergraduate at American University in Washington, DC, Jim Pfaus played guitar in two local punk bands while also studying psychology and working in labs at the university, Planned Parenthood, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “I honestly wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life,” he says. Ultimately, Pfaus opted to go to graduate school to study sexual behavior and keep music as a hobby. “I figured there’s no way the government would give me grants to do sex research in my basement, so that helped me make up my mind,” says Pfaus with a laugh.
It was the beginning of a whirlwind romance with behavioral neurobiology. In studies on rats and humans, Pfaus has mapped out neurotransmitter systems, cell-signaling mechanisms, and behavioral responses to sexual stimuli. He has also shown that a species’ sexual behaviors are not fixed; they can be conditioned and changed.
“Everybody seems to do it, so what is it about sex that is so taboo?”
Here, Pfaus opens his little black book to divulge how the word “sex” got him suspended from primary school, why good sex is like a good drug, and how targeting excitatory brain systems could help treat sexual dysfunction.
Three-letter word. “When I was in elementary school, I had a precocious interest in sex. As far [back] as I can remember, I ...
