Sex in an MRI

A paper presented at the Society for Neuroscience 2011 conference shows the first video of a woman’s brain as she approaches, experiences and recovers from an orgasm. The woman in the scanner was actually the PhD student whose work this is, who volunteered to self-stimulate her way to orgasm for her research.

The video was made using fMRI data and then creating a 3D model of the brain and the changes in activity in different areas. The main aim of the research is to understand what happens in the brain when reaching orgasm, in a bid to see if there are any differences in the brains of people who cannot experience orgasm.

The video shows activity in the motor and sensory areas, due to the nature of the task at hand (ahem), and during orgasm, there is an increase in activity in the hypothalamus and the nucleus accumbens, an area linked to pleasure and addiction.

This study is one in a long line of neuroscience research into sex and orgasm. Georgiadis et al (2009) found that there are a number of areas activated and deactivated for both men and women during orgasm, such as the frontal cortex and the pons, which bears striking similarities to brain images of people under the influence of heroin.

Georgiadis also found that there were some differences in brain activation, in that men had increased activity in the periaqueductal grey, which is linked with the fight or flight response, and the claustrum, which the authors argue demonstrates a preference for the more visual aspects of sex.

The vast amount of research in this area is to understand anorgasmia and provide interventions, such as the ‘Orgasmatron’. The Orgasmatron is a genuine invention, wherein women are surgically fitted with a device in their spine that can be remotely stimulated and often results in orgasm. However, this intervention comes with major costs, it is priced at around $12,000, and there is a risk of paralysis from the surgery.