In both sexes, the brain during orgasm looks about the same, and the orgasmic human brain resembles that of a person taking heroin.
Will congress now make a law against trafficking orgasms?
The abstracts are interesting, for the parts of the brain involved. It sounds very complex.
/Zin
-- Modified on 5/26/2004 11:50:07 PM
Z...As much as I wanted to read how my brain orgasms,
Your link prompts us to subscribe to Science News first.
Can you provide us with some of the notable excerpts.
Thanks.
Cheers!
I even tried closing my browser and testing it first. It still let me through.
From Science News: the Week of Nov. 29, 2003; Vol. 164, No. 22 , p. 350
"....At last year's meeting, scientists from the Netherlands amused and shocked U.S. neuroscientists with a brain-imaging study of men achieving orgasm. The same research team returned this year with images of the brain activity of women reaching climax. In an added twist, the investigators contrasted the brain activity when a woman faked an orgasm and when she actually had one as best as they could tell.
"...Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen and his colleagues have been recruiting men and women willing to undergo positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans while being manually stimulated to orgasm by a spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend.... a female orgasm was confirmed by physiological measurements such as heart rate and anal pressure.
"As expected, areas of the brain previously implicated in pleasure showed increased activity in both men and women having orgasms. In fact, Holstege says, orgasmic brain activity resembles that seen in a person taking heroin. Overall, the male and female brain activity during orgasms closely matched. "Basically, 95 percent is the same," says Holstege.
"Before their partners began to stimulate them, the women were asked to fake orgasms. They couldn't fool the PET scans....During fakes, many of the brain regions with increased activity were ones involved in muscle control."
And from the abstract:
"....Compared to clitoral stimulation, increased rCBF during orgasm was found in the meso-diencephalic junction, periaqueductal gray (PAG), lateral putamen, ventral pallidum, and in all parts of the cerebellum. Conversely, during faking of orgasm increased rCBF was found in pelvic floor motor cortex, right motor cortex, and medial parts of the cerebellum, pointing to voluntary motor system involvement.
"These results demonstrate that, similar to ejaculation and orgasm in men (Holstege et al. 2003), during female orgasm activation occurs primarily in subcortical parts of the brain. The meso-diencephalic junction comprises the reward-related ventral tegmental area, which might produce the pleasure aspect of orgasm. The finding of involvement of the PAG is interesting, because this area has been shown to play a role in female cat, rat, and hamster sexual behavior. Faking an orgasm only activated parts of the voluntary motor system."
(Citation:
G. Holstege, A.A.T. Reinders, A.M.J. Paans, L.C. Meiners, J. Pruim, J.R. Georgiadis. BRAIN ACTIVATION DURING FEMALE SEXUAL ORGASM. Program No. 727.7. 2003 Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner. Washington, DC: Society for Neuroscience, 2003. Online.)
/Zin
-- Modified on 5/27/2004 6:40:04 AM
This, of course, is great stuff. There has already been much groundwork to suggest that street drugs are so effective because they hijack the same pleasure pathways as those involved in sexual stimulation. Also, a drug-like effect probably accounts for why "hobbyists" are willing to spend so much time, effort and money to "see" providers.
One question, though, that comes to mind is why were the Dutch the first to do this pivotal study? After all, most of the brain imaging techniques were pioneered here in the U.S. Alas, the Dutch are among the most civilized when it comes to sex, while we seem to be regressing to primitivism at warp speed. To conduct these studies in the States, you would have to submit proposals to either the NIH or NSF, and also pass muster under local Institutional Review Boards that regulate human studies. Even so, I would imagine that numerous U.S. scientists have applied for grants to do these studies, and all have been turned down. As quoted in the movie The Right Stuff: "No bucks, no Buck Rodgers". Much the same problem with stem-cell research, which means that in time the U.S. will become a scientific backwater.
Still, we should all be congratulating the Dutch for performing an experiment that explains so much about our own behavior. I would imagine that one additional study that they'll be doing is the following. Examine the neurological effects (PET or functional Magnetic Resonance Imagining) on the male when he is having sex with an on-going partner, and then repeat the study with a new partner.
As noted above, it certainly raises questions about free-will, and exactly how far removed we are from our fellow animals. Sort of brings to mind the old quote that: "Humans are just chimps with carkeys".
You're right about the Dutch contrasting it with Americans. The US is now locked down too tight about science. It is so telling that American Scientists would be shocked about this work. For neuroscientists to ignore orgasm is like "ignoring the elephant in the ballroom."
Further notes:
It's funny that they were curious enough as men to want to see if they could detect the infamous fake orgasm. Watch this win a Nobel Prize now. 
I'm thinking there's a SF/porn movie waiting to be made based on the conducting of this study...
/Zin
Could you please tell us which issue so those of us who don't subscribe might find it in a library? Thanks.
... I can't be sure but I think she came while I was DATY.
If you are stuck without a PET scanner, you can simply insert a finger to check for "Increased anal pressure" and monitor her heartrate.
Wouldn't it be great if you could traffic in orgasms?
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family, Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers.
Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends.
Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future.. Choose life.
Now why would you want to do any of that when you can just choose drugs?
-- Modified on 5/27/2004 4:12:48 PM