Of course the question about how sexual attraction feels like has been asked on AVEN many times, e.g. here, but the sexuals who were answering it were mostly (maybe even always) romantic, and in the answers that I remember, 'spontaneous attraction' (if it was felt at all!) sounded like a mix of romantic and aesthetic attraction, and they had a hard time 'isolating' raw sexual attraction from other attraction modes.
Furthermore, one of the most influential thinkers on AVEN - Skullery Maid - has drawn attention to Dr Emily Nagoski's research telling that, for 80-90% of sexual women, responsive sexual desire is the primary mode of desire, as opposed to the spontaneous one, and ~30% of sexual women feel spontaneous sexual desire never or very seldom. That generates even more doubt about what sexual attraction actually is.
It would be useful to read about what happens specifically in aro (gray)sexuals' minds when they're attracted sexually because, in their case, there's no romantic 'noise' and it's easier to discern raw sexual attraction.
In particular, is it common among those aro (gray)sexuals who do experience the spontaneous form of sexual desire to actually visualize a potential sexual contact with the other person, as opposed to just admiring their appearance and behavior?
For comparison, as a highly libidoist male-bodied ace (tentatively), I get 'turned on' (experience a 'dirty' kind of aesthetic attraction) in a way that some of you may find weird. Basically, when I encounter a person (or a group of people), my sensory organs scan their appearance and behavior for fetishes. Then the sensory processing center of my brain makes a nonverbal report like, 'Instances of fetishes #2, 4 and 7 detected. Mental snapshots taken for future use. The absorbed dose of human beauty radiation has exceeded the critical level. Get into your pants asap to dump the dose.' That triggers a delayed (in the form of anxiety) or, in the case of a severe beauty poisoning, instant physiological response.
What brain processes make you, aro (gray)sexuals, desire partnered sex? (Some of you don't post on AVEN regularly, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to collect some extra testimonials anyway.) TIA!