Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;��Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 20 Nov 2011 - 0:00 PST
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Brain activity during a female orgasm has been described as secondary to an epileptic seizure, after researchers from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA recorded the upsurge of oxygen utilization in a 5-minute period of brain networking activity with a fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanner.
The researchers presented their findings at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2011, Washington D.C.
The video footage shows how brain activity develops during the crescendo period, the orgasm itself, and the recovery period. It shows how unrelated brain regions come to life, reach a climax of activity, and then settling back down again.
Lead researcher, Professor Barry Komisaruk, said:
"We're looking at the sequence of brain regions that get recruited at increasing intensity leading up to orgasm. It's such a compelling behavioral and sensory phenomenon with so many implications and so little understanding."
Nan Wise, 54, a sex therapist, who is a Rutgers PhD candidate, reached orgasm by self-stimulation. The researchers explained that every part of her brain was activated when she reached orgasm.
Wise said:
"When I first started grad school in '80s, we didn't have these methods. Now we can study how the brain is recruiting these regions to create the big bang of orgasm. Secondary to an epileptic seizure, there's no bigger brain networking event. It's a fantastic opportunity to examine the connectivity of the brain. Theoretically, it's going be helpful to know how things work. I think the caveat is understanding that sexuality is very complex."
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, UK, Wise said:
"It's my dissertation. I'm committed
to it."
Prof. Komisaruk said they aim to find out what goes wrong in individuals of both sexes who fail to reach sexual orgasm.
The movie animation - consisting of a series of snapshots taken two seconds apart - shows how 80 different brain regions (40 on each laterality) respond. It uses colors to represent oxygen utilization levels in the brain, displayed on a spectrum from dark red, progressing to orange, yellow and finally white (highest level of activity). When orgasm is reached, nearly the entire brain becomes an illuminated yellow/white.
Female Orgasm in Brodmann Brain Regions
Early on in the movie, one can see that the genital area of the sensory cortex becomes active first - what the researchers say is a response to being touched in the genital area. Then the limbic system comes into action - this part of the brain is involved in long-term memory and emotions.
When the orgasm is about to arrive, the cerebellum and the frontal cortex become much more active - Komisaruk says this is due to muscle tension.
Activity reaches a peak in the hypothalamus during orgasm - oxytocin is released, a pleasure-inducing chemical that makes the uterus contract. The nucleus accumbens, a region in the brain linked to pleasure and reward, also becomes very active.
After the orgasm subsides, so does activity in all the stimulated brain regions.
Komisaruk has developed a technique whereby the individual being scanned can see his/her own brain activity on a monitor, providing neurofeedback. The team aims to help people learn how to alter their brain activity, and perhaps eventually improve their symptoms related to pain, depression and anxiety.
Komisaruk said:
"We're using orgasm as a way of producing pleasure. If we can learn how to activate the pleasure regions of the brain then that could have wider applications."
Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
Authors: B. R. KOMISARUK, N. WISE, E. FRANGOS, W. BIRBANO, K. ALLEN; Dept Psychology, Rutgers, The State Univ. of New Jersey, NEWARK, NJ
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2011, Washington D.C.
MLA
Christian Nordqvist. "Female Orgasm - Brain Activity Captured In FMRI Imaging Device." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 20 Nov. 2011. Web.
22 Nov. 2011. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237976.php>
APA
Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.
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Alz
posted by She on 19 Nov 2011 at 12:42 pmWill this help support the claim that an active sex life is good for Alzheimer's Disease prevention?
Superb article
posted by Wes on 19 Nov 2011 at 2:40 pmThis is such an excellent article. My wife and I intend to attempt this technique so she can become a smarter individual. Constant orgasms, WHO KNEW!
Yes mam
posted by Richard Head on 19 Nov 2011 at 2:57 pmShe, I'm quite sure an active sex life does help prevent Alzheimer's Disease and a host of other health problems. It's good for you mentally and physically and great for relationships. Not only will it help prevent Alzheimer's Disease, but a husband with an active sex life is just plain more likely to rememner to take out the trash, do his honey dos and just be a better person to be around. Amd if you really want him to have a good memory, oral sex is wonderful for that. It's lights up his brain, his personality and his better angels.
Who paid for this study?
posted by jama on 19 Nov 2011 at 3:02 pmResearch for the public good? And who paid for this?
An abomination!
posted by Ruth Henwood on 19 Nov 2011 at 10:04 pmI am horrified that funds are being diverted for what is basically a fetish and titillating interest in pornography. What a waste of money. What are our children to think!!
This research changes our understanding of how brain works
posted by ZFK on 19 Nov 2011 at 10:26 pmIt is so sad that all some people saw or got out of reading this article were worried about how the study was paid for. Instead of realizing the amazing significance this new technology holds for the science of understanding how our brains work. This literally changes everything as far as understanding the human brain.
only idiots ignore human body research
posted by Russ Ellis on 20 Nov 2011 at 12:13 amWe should have had his kind of research long ago, but special interest groups with there heads in the gutter kept it from taking place by using the remarks some made here on it being taxpayer funding pornography, now that is perhaps the dumbest thing that I have heard yet and Yet they are the same ones who gripe about not having any cures. It is about time.
Genital Mutilation
posted by Dr Dave on 20 Nov 2011 at 7:28 amWestern women need to develop an awareness of what is going on with their Muslim sisters where up to 90% have had the clitoris removed. This not only traumatizes young girls sexually, it also precludes most from achieving any kind of release. This makes for a difficult life for the woman & her children who must deal with additional stresses mother nature would have otherwise helped relieve.
Yet... some remain skeptical
posted by Kevin on 20 Nov 2011 at 8:35 amFemale orgasm captured on scan. Conservatives remain skeptical.
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