(no subject)
Jun. 21st, 2005 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheFaked orgasms don't fool brain scans
Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have used scans to show that different areas of the brain are stimulated during an orgasm but are not activated when a woman fakes it.
[...] [Gert Holstege] and colleagues took brain scans of 13 women and 11 men, aged 19-49 who had volunteered for the study, while they were being sexually stimulated by their partner and during an orgasm and compared them to images of their brains at rest.
"We wanted to know what the brain was doing during orgasm," Holstege said.
When women genuinely achieved an orgasm, areas of the brain involved in fear and emotion were deactivated. Those areas stayed alert however when women were faking it.
The researchers also found that the cortex, which is linked with consciousness, is active during a fake orgasm but not during the real thing.
"The deactivation of these very important parts of the brain might be the most important thing necessary to have an orgasm," said Holstege.
"It means that if you are fearful or at a very high level of anxiety, then it is very difficult to have sex because you really have to let yourself go," he added.
***
As someone on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
neuroscience said, there is a difference between being less active and not being active at all. It's hard to believe that the cortex completely shuts down during actual orgasm.
Also there is a difference between having sex and achieving orgasm.
But finding that the amygdala is deactivated during actual orgasm is quite a discovery.
Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have used scans to show that different areas of the brain are stimulated during an orgasm but are not activated when a woman fakes it.
[...] [Gert Holstege] and colleagues took brain scans of 13 women and 11 men, aged 19-49 who had volunteered for the study, while they were being sexually stimulated by their partner and during an orgasm and compared them to images of their brains at rest.
"We wanted to know what the brain was doing during orgasm," Holstege said.
When women genuinely achieved an orgasm, areas of the brain involved in fear and emotion were deactivated. Those areas stayed alert however when women were faking it.
The researchers also found that the cortex, which is linked with consciousness, is active during a fake orgasm but not during the real thing.
"The deactivation of these very important parts of the brain might be the most important thing necessary to have an orgasm," said Holstege.
"It means that if you are fearful or at a very high level of anxiety, then it is very difficult to have sex because you really have to let yourself go," he added.
***
As someone on
neuroscience said, there is a difference between being less active and not being active at all. It's hard to believe that the cortex completely shuts down during actual orgasm.Also there is a difference between having sex and achieving orgasm.
But finding that the amygdala is deactivated during actual orgasm is quite a discovery.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 01:24 pm (UTC)But - yeah, I don't find myself able to think terribly well during :))
I'm gonna hafta steal this link.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 01:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 02:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 05:35 pm (UTC)Someone brought up an interesting issue about "big" vs. "small" female orgasms--I can certainly distinguish between them in my own experience, and I think it would be interesting to see if they're the same physiological process with degrees of amplification, or if there are qualitative difference in the neurological activity.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-06-21 06:20 pm (UTC)