What Happens to a Women During Orgasm and How the Brain Effects the Emotional Response
http://www.womensquarter.com/articles/6941/1/What-Happens-to-a-Women-During-Orgasm-and-How-the-Brain-Effects-the-Emotional-Response/Page1.html
Holly Franklin
Holly Franklin has a self pleasure for women website. The site aim is to make people more open about sex and issues affecting women
For men's isuues visit what is the average size of a penis By Holly Franklin
Published on 25 June 2009
The female orgasm is still a mystery but a recent study has shown that the brain is affected with the emotions being shut off. The reason that this happens during a women's orgasm is explained by the vital need to reproduce over riding all other aspects of sex.
For women, it appears, sex is a giant turn-off according to a recent brain scanning study. It shows that many areas of the brain turn off in the female orgasm - including those concerned with emotion. "At the instant of orgasm, girls don't have any emotional feelings," announces Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen in Holland.
As the ladies were excited, activity rose in one sensory part of the brain, called the primary somatosensory cortex, but slipped in the amygdala and hippocampus, areas concerned in application and tension. In one sense the findings seem to confirm what other studies already told us which is that ladies cannot enjoy sex unless they are relaxed and free from concerns and distractions. "Fear and agitation levels have to go down for orgasm. Everybody knows this but we are able to see it going down in the brain," he explains. From an evolutionary perspective it may be the brain switches off the feelings during sex because at such times the opportunity to produce offspring becomes more vital than the survival risk to the individual.
Holstege points towards the unusual behaviour seen in some animals in the breeding season such as n March hares. In March Hares the urge to mate appears to override the common fear of predators. But Holstege can't say why there's such extraordinary deactivation in so many areas of the brain during orgasm.
Only one tiny part of the brain, in the cerebellum, was more active during female orgasm. The cerebellum is usually related to coordinating movement, though there is also some proof that it helps control emotions. "We have no idea what activation of the cerebellum corresponds to," Holstege admits. His study also made public clear differences when ladies were faking an orgasm. Part of the brain involved controlling conscious movement lit up, and there was not one of the acute deactivation. Next the team hope to take a look at what happens to the brain in the minutes after orgasm as well as in patients with sexual problems. The team has done an analogous study concerning eleven men which showed a lot less deactivation during orgasm than in females. However, Holstege claims the results are potentially untrustworthy and have to be repeated.
The issue is that PET scanners measure activity over 2 mins and in men it's all over in some seconds when the orgasm is concerned. There has to be a better way to study and analyse the responses within the male brain in the short time he is in the "orgasmic state".
As the ladies were excited, activity rose in one sensory part of the brain, called the primary somatosensory cortex, but slipped in the amygdala and hippocampus, areas concerned in application and tension. In one sense the findings seem to confirm what other studies already told us which is that ladies cannot enjoy sex unless they are relaxed and free from concerns and distractions. "Fear and agitation levels have to go down for orgasm. Everybody knows this but we are able to see it going down in the brain," he explains. From an evolutionary perspective it may be the brain switches off the feelings during sex because at such times the opportunity to produce offspring becomes more vital than the survival risk to the individual.
Holstege points towards the unusual behaviour seen in some animals in the breeding season such as n March hares. In March Hares the urge to mate appears to override the common fear of predators. But Holstege can't say why there's such extraordinary deactivation in so many areas of the brain during orgasm.
Only one tiny part of the brain, in the cerebellum, was more active during female orgasm. The cerebellum is usually related to coordinating movement, though there is also some proof that it helps control emotions. "We have no idea what activation of the cerebellum corresponds to," Holstege admits. His study also made public clear differences when ladies were faking an orgasm. Part of the brain involved controlling conscious movement lit up, and there was not one of the acute deactivation. Next the team hope to take a look at what happens to the brain in the minutes after orgasm as well as in patients with sexual problems. The team has done an analogous study concerning eleven men which showed a lot less deactivation during orgasm than in females. However, Holstege claims the results are potentially untrustworthy and have to be repeated.
The issue is that PET scanners measure activity over 2 mins and in men it's all over in some seconds when the orgasm is concerned. There has to be a better way to study and analyse the responses within the male brain in the short time he is in the "orgasmic state".