Abstract: Objective To investigate the relationship between psychogenic erectile dysfunction (pED) of kidney deficiency type (KD) and attention network dysfunction. Methods A total of 26 patients with pED of KD type and 24 were recruited from Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Science from March 2021 to January 2022. And 24 healthy males were recruited as the control group according to the principle of matching between groups in terms of age, sex and years of education.Both study groups underwent attention network test (ANT). Results Compared with healthy subjects, the patients with pED of KD type showed significantly poorer efficiency on executive control network and overall mean reaction time (P<0.05). The alerting network efficiency, orienting network efficiency and mean correctness rates were not statistically significant compared to normal control subjects (P>0.05). Furthermore, efficiency on executive control network was positively associated with the scores of kidney yang deficiency(r=0.408,P=0.039).And the multi-factor Logistic regression analysis showed efficiency on executive control network was positively associated with pED of KD type (P<0.05). Conclusion Our findings suggested that patients with pED of KD type exhibited impairments of executive control network, which may be related to altered neural activities in brain regions associated with executive control functions. It provided a modern scientific basis for the treatment of psychogenic erectile dysfunction of kidney deficiency type by Chinese medicine theory of kidney.

Key words: psychogenic erectile dysfunction, kidney deficiency, the theory of kidney storing will, attention networks