PET Scanning the Female Orgasm AKA The Best Article EVER

I love science. New Scientist reports a study looking at brain activation during the female orgasm. The results are let us say interesting.

His team recruited 13 healthy heterosexual women and their partners. The women were asked to lie with their heads in a PET scanner while the team compared their brain activity in four states: simply resting, faking an orgasm, having their clitoris stimulated by their partner's fingers, and clitoral stimulation to the point of orgasm.

The results of the study are striking. As the women were stimulated, activity rose in one sensory part of the brain, called the primary somatosensory cortex, but fell in the amygdala and hippocampus, areas involved in alertness and anxiety. During orgasm, activity fell in many more areas of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, compared with the resting state, Holstege told a meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Development in Copenhagen on Monday.

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But Holstege cannot explain why there is such extreme deactivation in so many areas of the brain during orgasm. Only one small part of the brain, in the cerebellum, was more active during female orgasm. The cerebellum is normally associated with coordinating movement, though there is also some evidence that it helps regulate emotions. "We don't know what activation of the cerebellum corresponds to," Holstege admits.

His study also revealed clear differences when women were faking an orgasm. Part of the brain involved controlling conscious movement lit up, and there was none of the extreme deactivation.

Next the team hope to look at what happens to the brain in the minutes after orgasm, as well as in patients with sexual problems. The team has already done a similar study involving 11 men, which revealed far less deactivation during orgasm than in women. However, Holstege says the results are probably unreliable and need to be repeated. The problem is that PET scanners measure activity over two minutes - and in men it is all over in a few seconds.

I have several responses to this article:

1) I would say that this adds incentive for men to bring women to orgasm because for that brief moment we can shut off their brains and be free of their nagging. However, such statements would go far in explaining why I can't get a date, so I will avoid them and denounce those who make them.

2) I must procure this device because then I will finally have means to know whether women are faking. "Hey baby, why not step into my velour PET scanner..."

3) Ha! Feeble men. Over so quick that it evades experimental detection. I guess they will just have to do it over and over again. I am willing -- for the sake of the species -- to volunteer.

Hat-tip: Neuro Nerd.