Introduction: Stimulation with affective stimuli elicits event-related potentials (ERP), the area under the curve (AUC) correlating with „arousal“-values of these stimuli. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) contains 716 pictures with different „arousal“-values (1 to 9), most of them identical (i.e. sports, food), some different (erotic pictures) for men and women. The aim of this study was to examine sex differences in the generation of ERP, elicited by pictures with large differences in the arousal-ratings in both sexes.