Research presented by Alumit Ishai at the conference aimed to throw light on the role of gender and sexual orientation on ratings of attractiveness for male and female faces. Participants included heterosexual and homosexual men and women. The results showed that for heterosexual women and homosexualmen, activa- tion in orbitofrontal cortex was higher for attractive male faces than attractive female faces, whereas the converse was true for heterosexual men and homosexual women. According to Ishai, the orbitofrontal cortex represents the reward value of faces of po- tential sexual partners, rather than reproductive fitness. It should be noted, however, that the relationship between facial beauty and reward is not necessarily straightforward. Aharon.
