Women fall into 'trance' during orgasm From Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent in Copehagen The first brain scans of men and women having sex and reaching orgasm have revealed striking differences in the way each experiences sexual pleasure. While male brains focus heavily on the physical stimulation involved in sexual contact, this is just one part of a much more complex picture for women, scientists in the Netherlands have found. The key to female arousal seems rather to be deep relaxation and a lack of anxiety, with direct sensory input from the genitals playing a less critical role. The scans show that during sexual activity, the parts of the female brain responsible for processing fear, anxiety and emotion start to relax and reduce in activity. This reaches a peak at orgasm, when the female brain’s emotion centres are effectively closed down to produce an almost trance-like state. The male brain was harder to study during orgasm, because of its shorter duration in men, but the scans nonetheless revealed important differences. Emotion centres were deactivated, though apparently less intensely than in women, and men also appear to concentrate more on the sensations transmitted from the genitals to the brain. This suggests that for men, the physical aspects of sex play a much more significant part in arousal than they do for women, for whom ambience, mood and relaxation are at least as important. "Men find it more important to be stimulated on the penis than women find it to be stimulated on the ****oris," Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Copenhagen today. "We know from these images that each sex experiences stimulation differently." The experiments also revealed a rather surprising effect: both men and women found it easier to have an orgasm when they kept their socks on. Draughts in the scanning room left couples complaining of "literally cold feet", and providing a pair of socks allowed 80 per cent rather than 50 per cent to reach a climax while their brains were scanned. The scans also show that while women may be able to fool their partners with a fake orgasm, the difference is obvious in the brain. Parts of the brain that handle conscious movement light up during fake orgasms but not during real ones, while emotion centres close down during the real thing but never when a woman is pretending. In the study, a team at the University of Groningen led by Gert Holstege scanned the brains of 13 women and 11 men using a technique called positron emission tomography (PET), while they manually stimulated to orgasm by their partners. All were heterosexual and right-handed, the latter to ensure that all their brains could be easily compared. The subjects’ heads were restrained in the PET scanner during the procedure, as it only works if the body area being scanned remains still. The dimensions of the scanner and the need for stillness also explain why the researchers were unable to study intercourse itself. In both sexes, activity in the amygdala, which processes fear and anxiety, was reduced during stimulation. Women, but not men, showed lower activity in the hippocampus, important for memory, as well. In men, greater activity was seen in the insula, which deals with emotion, and particularly in the secondary somatosensory cortex, which rates the significance of physical sensations. This suggests that the sensory input coming from the genitals is being judged highly important and pleasurable by the brain. Women, however, show very little increased brain activity, and only in the primary somatosensory cortex - which registers purely that a sensation in the genitals is there."In women the primary feeling is there, but not the marker that this is seen as a big deal," Dr Holstege said."For males, touch itself is all-important. For females, it is not so important." As orgasm lasts much longer in women than in men, it is easier to study using PET - male ejaculation is over so quickly it is hard to get a reliable reading. The scans showed that in the female orgasm, activity is reduced across all the brain regions - conscious and subconscious - that handle emotion, including the amygdale, medial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex. "What this means is that deactivation, letting go of all fear and anxiety, might be the most important thing, even necessary, to have an orgasm," Dr Holstege said. _______ If the female orgasms depend on ambiance and relaxation, how did they ever get women to agree to do it inside a PET scanner? It wouldn't hurt to try that as a pickup line.
The PET scanner does seem like a weird place... also, I am amazed they got any orgasms out of the whole process. It says: In the study, a team at the University of Groningen led by Gert Holstege scanned the brains of 13 women and 11 men using a technique called positron emission tomography (PET), while they manually stimulated to orgasm by their partners. All were heterosexual and right-handed, the latter to ensure that all their brains could be easily compared. So: these are men. Using their hands. Apparently the women were not allowed to help or guide anything. How did they even know what to do to get her there? The subjects’ heads were restrained in the PET scanner during the procedure, as it only works if the body area being scanned remains still. The dimensions of the scanner and the need for stillness also explain why the researchers were unable to study intercourse itself. Well, that's no fun. Ummm... hope this isn't too much to discuss, but how are you going to have a good one if you can't even move? Other than that, science is telling us lots of stuff we already knew. I mean, the part about the socks may be useful, but otherwise: fake ones don't work. Men and women are different. And women turn their brains off in that situation. That would explain a lot of stuff.
That's interesting. I've always been afraid to fall into the sock gap. Under the sexual arena of earthly delight, there lurks a deadly pit of socks.
I kinda like socks myself, and I like them on my partner to, as long as they are sexy socks, or those little tenni socks, so I guess I'm kinda excited about this. ...so when My biotch isn't moving, she's actually trying to get to orgasm, but that poses an interesting dilemma, because I kinda like to feel like I'm not with a dead fish. And is quite opposite what I would expect, because those crazy women seem to get there faster, and the trance like women tend to never really care if they even get there.
Define "sexy socks". Well, first it might help if you didn't think of her or refer to her as a "biotch"... Anyway, that doesn't make any sense. How are you gonna get there if you don't move? If so, you're probably getting one of those little half orgasm things, not one of the good ones. As a woman, you need to move... not very likely that he's going to get you there all by himself anyway. You need to help things out. Not to mention have some fun...
You have obviously never been with a man who knows how to concentrate on and respond to the reactions of women during foreplay. Too bad I'm married or I would show you what a skilled pair of hands can accomplish.
I think the sample size and restraints of the PET scanner make this study anything but definitive. As for the moving vs. not moving part their might be something to that. I've been with a woman who practically blacked out at orgasm.
