When scientists try to record and uncover a great stimulus in life, they come across some real minds --scratchers.
For example, how do they explain the fact that some men and women with paralysis and numbness below the waist can reach orgasm?
How to explain the "climax aura" that may fall during seizures"-
They asked some patients to refuse anti-seizure drugs?
How exactly does it explain the situation of the amputee who feels his orgasm is concentrated on that lost foot? No one --
No sexologist, no neuroscientist. -really knows.
For a subject with so many armchair experts, the climax of human beings is very mysterious.
But today, some scientists are making real progress. -
Part of the reason is that they are changing their focus.
To uncover the secrets of orgasm, researchers are looking beyond the clit, vagina, penis and prostate to find the behind-the-scenes place that really happens magically.
They are studying the central nervous system: a network of pulses that travel back and forth through the brain and spinal cord.
The genitals may be instruments in the climax orchestra, but the central nervous system is the conductor.
Scientists have new lab tools and fearless volunteers.
How the brain lights up (
Close in some places)
When the climax of the fireworks
They are tracking the nerves and looking for new ways of happiness to help explain how people with spinal cord crush go against sexual expectations.
Some labs are even patching devices to get patients to look at their sexual brain patterns and "train" themselves to find the elusive flying discs that give them direct access to their orgasm abilities
Similar to the climax of Woody Allen's 1973 film Sleeper)
Let them hit a dessert in the spinal cord with their toes.
A curved electrical pulse.
"We don't know there's a lot of orgasms," Barry R said . ".
Komisaruk, professor of psychology at Kom University, is co-author of 2006 book, climax science.
"But we are about to get a lot of very important information and really understand how to deal with it.
Julia R. said: "It's not just the principle of happiness that drives this study.
Hayman, director of the Kinsey Institute, a non-profit organization at Indiana University.
Sex is an important part of relationships, she says, and this in turn affects mental health.
"The treatment of many diseases or diseases can interfere with the climax of people," she said . " It includes MS, cancer, Parkinson's disease, depression and diabetes.
In fact, if you want to believe in the investigation, the most enjoyable experience for many people is elusive.
About 43% of women and 31% of men in the United StatesS.
The decree of the year of age and 60 meet the standard of sexual dysfunction, according to more than 1999 of the sexual behavior of more than 3,000. S. adults.
The researchers hope their efforts will help these people. -eventually.
For now, the report is more about the "subtropical nervous system" than "try it at home tonight ".
"Any aspect of research has never been easy, let alone a center so pornographic --
As the stage of the climax.
"Almost everyone is interested in orgasm, but it is also difficult to start this kind of work," especially in the United States. S. , says Dr.
Gert Holstege, a neurologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, said.
The Victorian era is not over yet.
"So it's not surprising that some of the most impressive discoveries in the science of climax were discovered by chance.
Viagra, for example, was originally a drug used to treat high blood pressure and heart disease.
Other touted AIDS lack formal evidence.
There is no doubt that most of the nostrums offered at pharmacies or on the Internet are from "oh-please-please-make-this-
The power of the placebo effect of "work.
Although as early as the Alfred Kinsey period, sexologists have detailed the climax habits of people, until now, researchers have begun to understand that all this is
Climax is hard to define, not to mention reverseengineer.
However, some blueprints have been outlined.
First, stimulating the genitals will pulse along three main pathways. -
Pelvic, lower abdominal and genital nerves.
Next, these stimulation signals enter the spinal cord at the bottom of the spine and compress upwards into the brain region that is responsive to the sensation of the genitals.
Then other parts of the brain begin to act.
Some people send signals back to the body with certain instructions ---
Lubricate the vagina, harden the penis, pump blood hard, and breathe faster.
The intensity is gradually increasing, just like a long time.
The long-awaited sneezing and nervousness were released in the explosion.
Double heart rate.
In women, the uterus contracts rhythmically; in men, sperm-
Carry semen from the body.
Somehow, through mechanisms that have not yet been understood, the brain believes that all these activities are a very good feeling.
This signaling pathway seems to rule out the climax of anyone with a complete spinal cord cut, because people with this impairment do not feel the feeling of fingers passing through the penis or the clit.
But about twenty years ago, anecdotal evidence began to accumulate evidence to the contrary.
This is a bit of an accident for the medical community, which has been telling patients with spinal cord damage for decades to give up hope for sex.
The researchers began their investigation. One, Dr. Marca Sipski-
Alexander, a study published in 2001, 2006 reported that 50% of 45 men and 44% of 68 women ---
All of these have different positions and degrees of spinal cord injury. -
Climax in the lab, stimulated by adult video and hand or vibrator.
The results showed that normal genitalsto-spine-to-
The brain pathway to orgasm is not the only one.
The best explanation may be that the touch that the brain can't see can still do its job, said Alexander, a professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Alabama, Birmingham Medical College.
Alexander believes that, like urinating, orgasm is a reflex.
Both functions can be controlled by willpower.
But like you don't need to say about your bladder emptying-
For your brain, she says, maybe the orgasm won't.
Maybe all it takes is some money.
Chat between pelvis and spinal cord.
Some studies, mainly on animals, support this idea.
The researchers found in the trunk and spinal cord of the brain. Cable programming-
Cell cluster acting as original Mini
All kinds of brains-
Produce rhythmic movements without any brain input. These so-
What is called the central pattern generator is something that allows the software to swim, let the mouse crawl, and let the tadpole breathe, perhaps for the human male to take their fur and ejaculate.
Studies in mice show that females also have these muscles.
Original Contractbrains.
But orgasm is not just muscle contraction. They feel good.
So how is the brain of the spinal cord? cord-
Does the injured feel happy? "I don't know.
"No one knows this yet," Alexander said . ".
Komisaruk at Rutgers University and Beverly Whipple, a retired professor at Rutgers University, are co-authors of climax science and G-Point and other discoveries about human sexuality
But they don't think orgasm is a reflection.
Through the study of the spinecord-
The injured women, they found evidence of a new climax channel that completely bypassed the spine.
The proposed detour takes advantage of a huge neural road called the vagal network.
Just as they were named a lost animal, the vagal nerve wandered through the whole body.
They start at the bottom of the brain and slide down the neck (
But not the spinal cord)
Stretching to all major organs and (
(At least on female mice)
Uterus and cervix.
If the nerve reaches the internal organs of the daren, the signal of the genitals jumps on the spinal cord and still reaches the brain.
Animal experiments support the idea.
Female rats with complete but cut reproductive nerve (
Cut off their signal to the spinal cord)
Under normal circumstances, despite being a rodent, there is still a reaction to vaginal stimulation
Like, fashion: enlarged pupil, attentive attention, and tendency to ignore the pain stimulation of claws.
However, when the nerve in the pelvis is also cut off, all of these sexual reactions stop.
For further study, in a 2004 study, Komisaruk and Whipple worked with four women who had crushed their spinal cord.
When the researchers used an fMRI scan to measure brain activity, everyone stimulated her cervix with a penis.
Whipple said that although all women had their spinal cord cut off, they felt the touch of the stimulus.
The feeling of the neck reaches the brain.
More importantly, in an fMRI scan, their brain is lit up in the area where the signal of the nerve is processed.
The three volunteers went through the climax.
Komisaruk and Whipple compared these brain images to women who were able to think on their own to reach orgasm (
So who provides a clean brain image of a person reaching orgasm).
They found that orgasms cause strong activity in the nucleus, which is the reward center, and the reaction to nicotine, chocolate, cocaine and music also lights up;
In the small brain that helps coordinate muscle tension;
And release of oxytocin, trust, and society-Bonding hormone
Interestingly, the cortex regions that respond to pain also respond at orgasm.
"Maybe this has something to do with people's often painful expressions when they are in high tide," Komisaruk said . ".
The emotional center of the brain, the almond body and the hippocampus that processes memory, will also light up.
This helps explain a Medical Mystery: When seizures start in these areas, the frenzy of electricity triggers a pleasant feeling called the climax aura.
Most patients find the experience unpleasant.
But in an open case, a 51-year-
The old woman said that her auras was very pleasant and she did not consider taking anti-seizure drugs or surgery.
Holstege's team also looked at the sexually stimulated brain, and his findings suggest that orgasm is not just how the brain lights up, but where the brain shuts down.
At the end of 1990, his team recruited volunteers and their sexual partners who would stimulate them in the lab.
In order to measure brain activity, the researchers used PET scanners, which required an obsession with time.
Stimuli are required to induce orgasm in their receivers within two years
8 minutes window.
Warning a few minutes in advance(
The couple were told to practice at home first. )
Janniko R says the results are quite similar for men and women.
Neurologist at the University of Groningen and co-author of the study.
There are several activation areas, but the most significant result is how certain areas in the front of the brain are shut down during orgasm, especially after the left eye, Georgiadis said.
Researchers have long noticed the damage in this area. -
Lateral orbital frontal cortex--
It can lead to serious anti-social and impulsive tendencies, including sexual impulses.
Georgiadis added that the closure of the frontal cortex of the brain seems critical.
"This is the center of rational and behavioral control.
But when you reach the climax, you lose control.
It is also shown that there is damping activity in the area called the temporal leaf.
In fact, the less activity these areas have, the more sexual arousal women feel.
The researchers say the inhibition may explain the attraction of self-love choking.
Depriving the brain of blood during sex not only brings dangerous stimuli, but also shuts down key brain areas, leading to addictive orgasms.
In New Jersey, Komisaruk is trying to apply some new brain knowledge.
He is working on two extremes: those who complain about constant sexual arousal, women who can't find relief in orgasm and those who will never reach orgasm.
He wants to reveal where their brains are "stuck" and help them change their brain patterns.
The setup is simple: women lying on an MRI scanner watch the computer show their brain activity.
A scan of women with persistent genital awakening disorders found that the activation of areas that responded to genital stimulation was abnormally high.
Komisaruk says it shows that women's complaints are true.
Their brains think the genitals are constantly stimulated.
Komisaruk is directing them to use the nervous systemfeedback --
Psychological strategies such as numbers or images-
Change their brain activity.
If they see these genital brain areas cool a few seconds after a mental workout, they can improve their technique and end up doing it without a scanner, as long as these brain areas slide into the super again
Fire rather than ice could be a trick for anorexia women, and Komisaruk plans to look into these women next.
For some women, the clit stimulation may travel along the spinal cord, but then it is blocked in some way so that they do not go to the brain area they need to go.
"We want to see if there is a blockage somewhere and if it is vulnerable to changes in mental activity," he said . ".
Anorexia women may practice with vibrators in the lab, trying to mimic the brain patterns of other women's success.
The brain is amazing plastic, says Komisaruk.
Witness this strange case. -
University of California, San Diego neuroscientistV. S. Ramachandran --
The man who had a climax in his phantom foot.
When the person's foot is cut off, the cells in the "foot" part of the brain are suddenly deprived of stimulation.
They died and left a vacancy in the gold property.
Then, like an opportunistic roommate, a neighboring area of the man's brain is likely to produce bean sprouts to capture the empty landscape. That region?
Things that deal with penis and vulva input
The result: the man felt his feet.
At the climax of 1 feet years, he has no more.
Komisaruk says there's nothing like this going to happen with some orgasm nerve training in the lab.
But anecdotal evidence suggests that the brain does have some very imaginative skills. health@latimes.