To make the animation, researchers monitored a woman's brain as she lay in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and stimulated herself. The research will help scientists to understand how the brain conducts the symphony of activity that leads to sexual climax in a woman.
By studying people who have orgasms, Professor Barry Komisaruk, a psychologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey and his team hope to uncover what goes wrong in both men and women who cannot reach sexual climax.
The animation was compiled from sequential brain scans of Nan Wise, a 54-year-old PhD student and sex therapist in Komisaruk's lab. "It's my dissertation," Wise told the Guardian. "I'm committed to it."
fMRI images of a woman's brain as she experiences an orgasm. Oxygen levels in the blood correspond to the activity of different brain regions and are represented here on a spectrum from dark red (lowest) to yellow/white (highest). Twenty snapshots of the data have been taken from a 12-minute sequence during which she approaches orgasm, achieves orgasm and then enters a refractory period. Video: TheVisualMD.com
The five-minute movie shows how activity changes across 80 separate regions of the brain in snapshots taken every two seconds. The animation uses a "hot metal" colour scale that begins at dark red and progresses through orange and yellow to white at the highest levels of activity.
"The general aim of this 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 Prof Komisaruk, who presented the work at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington DC on Monday. The work has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
As the animation plays, activity first builds up in the genital area of the sensory cortex, a response to being touched in that region. Activity then spreads to the limbic system, a collection of brain structures involved in emotions and long-term memory.
As the orgasm arrives, activity shoots up in two parts of the brain called the cerebellum and the frontal cortex, perhaps because of greater muscle tension. During orgasm, activity reaches a peak in the hypothalamus, which releases a chemical called oxytocin that causes pleasurable sensations and stimulates the uterus to contract. Activity also peaks in the nucleus accumbens, an area linked to reward and pleasure.
After orgasm, the activity in all these regions gradually calms down.
"It's a beautiful system in which to study the brain's connectivity," Komisaruk said. "We expect that this movie, a dynamic representation of the gradual buildup of brain activity to a climax, followed by resolution, will facilitate our understanding of pathological conditions such as anorgasmia by emphasising where in the brain the sequential process breaks down."
When I first started grad school in '80s, we didn't have these methods. Now we can study how the brain is recruiting these regions to create the big bang of orgasm. Secondary to an epileptic seizure, there's no bigger brain networking event. It's a fantastic opportunity to examine the connectivity of the brain. Theoretically, it's going be helpful to know how things work. I think the caveat is understanding that sexuality is very complex.
Prof. Komisaruk said they aim to find out what goes wrong in individuals of both sexes who fail to reach sexual orgasm.
The movie animation - consisting of a series of snapshots taken two seconds apart - shows how 80 different brain regions (40 on each laterality) respond. It uses colors to represent oxygen utilization levels in the brain, displayed on a spectrum from dark red, progressing to orange, yellow and finally white (highest level of activity). When orgasm is reached, nearly the entire brain becomes an illuminated yellow/white.
Brain activity during a female orgasm has been described as secondary to an epileptic seizure, after researchers from Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA recorded the upsurge of oxygen utilization in a 5-minute period of brain networking activity with a fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanner.
The researchers presented their findings at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2011, Washington D.C.
The video footage shows how brain activity develops during the crescendo period, the orgasm itself, and the recovery period. It shows how unrelated brain regions come to life, reach a climax of activity, and then settling back down again.
Lead researcher, Professor Barry Komisaruk, said:
"We're looking at the sequence of brain regions that get recruited at increasing intensity leading up to orgasm. It's such a compelling behavioral and sensory phenomenon with so many implications and so little understanding."
Nan Wise, 54, a sex therapist, who is a Rutgers PhD candidate, reached orgasm by self-stimulation. The researchers explained that every part of her brain was activated when she reached orgasm.
Wise said:
"When I first started grad school in '80s, we didn't have these methods. Now we can study how the brain is recruiting these regions to create the big bang of orgasm. Secondary to an epileptic seizure, there's no bigger brain networking event. It's a fantastic opportunity to examine the connectivity of the brain. Theoretically, it's going be helpful to know how things work. I think the caveat is understanding that sexuality is very complex."
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, UK, Wise said:
"It's my dissertation. I'm committed
to it."
Prof. Komisaruk said they aim to find out what goes wrong in individuals of both sexes who fail to reach sexual orgasm.
The movie animation - consisting of a series of snapshots taken two seconds apart - shows how 80 different brain regions (40 on each laterality) respond. It uses colors to represent oxygen utilization levels in the brain, displayed on a spectrum from dark red, progressing to orange, yellow and finally white (highest level of activity). When orgasm is reached, nearly the entire brain becomes an illuminated yellow/white.
Female Orgasm in Brodmann Brain Regions
Early on in the movie, one can see that the genital area of the sensory cortex becomes active first - what the researchers say is a response to being touched in the genital area. Then the limbic system comes into action - this part of the brain is involved in long-term memory and emotions.
When the orgasm is about to arrive, the cerebellum and the frontal cortex become much more active - Komisaruk says this is due to muscle tension.
Activity reaches a peak in the hypothalamus during orgasm - oxytocin is released, a pleasure-inducing chemical that makes the uterus contract. The nucleus accumbens, a region in the brain linked to pleasure and reward, also becomes very active.
After the orgasm subsides, so does activity in all the stimulated brain regions.
Komisaruk has developed a technique whereby the individual being scanned can see his/her own brain activity on a monitor, providing neurofeedback. The team aims to help people learn how to alter their brain activity, and perhaps eventually improve their symptoms related to pain, depression and anxiety.
No comments:
Post a Comment