Women: This Is Your Brain During Orgasm

Bran scan video is first to reveal female fireworks
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 16, 2011 12:41 AM CST
Updated Nov 16, 2011 5:15 AM CST
Women: This Is Your Brain During Orgasm
Yes, yes, YESSSSS!!   (VisualMd)

Here, finally, is a female orgasm in living, gasping color, delivered in a mesmerizing video of brain scans. The scans show the build up, the big event, and the "recovery" after several areas of the brain light up in a "crescendo" of oxygen-rapacious activity, reports the Guardian. The video shows what happens to the brain of a 54-year-old PhD student and sex therapist masturbating in an MRI machine. "It's my dissertation," the student said. "I'm committed to it." The aim of the research is to "understand how the orgasm builds up from genital stimulation and what parts of the brain become recruited, and finally build up into an orgasm," said Rutgers Professor Barry Komisaruk, who presented the work at a scientific conference in Washington.

Scientists hope that understanding what happens to the brain during orgasm will help them figure out what goes wrong when partners can't achieve one. The five-minute video shows how activity changes across 80 separate regions of the brain in snapshots taken every two seconds. Oxygen utilization shows up dark red (lowest activity) to yellow (highest). The orgasm leads to almost the entire brain turning yellow. Only an epileptic seizure is believed to engage more areas of the brain, reports Scientific American. Click VisualMd to see the video. (More orgasm stories.)

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