Well, I don't know if it's that accurate, but here's some news I've been meaning to blog about. It concerns the mechanical detection of that largely-mythical creature; the female orgasm.
Here's the article, and you should just go read it if you haven't already, it's pretty short and most of the excerpts I'm about to snip are props for cheap attempts at humor.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark Jun 21, 2005 -- New research indicates parts of the brain that govern fear and anxiety are switched off when a woman is having an orgasm but remain active if she is faking.
In the first study to map brain function during orgasm, scientists from the Netherlands also found that as a woman climaxes, an area of the brain governing emotional control is largely deactivated.
"The fact that there is no deactivation in faked orgasms means a basic part of a real orgasm is letting go. Women can imitate orgasm quite well, as we know, but there is nothing really happening in the brain," said neuroscientist Gert Holstege, presenting his findings Monday to the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.
This article is simply full of potentially hilarious material, but I think my favorite part is found in three little words in the previous paragraph, when the doctor says, "as we know."
Holstege said he had trouble getting reliable results from the study on men because the scanner needs activities lasting at least two minutes and the men's climaxes didn't last that long. However, the scans did show activation of reward centers in the brain for men, but not for women.
Holstege said his results on women were more clear.
When women faked orgasm, the cortex, the part of the brain governing conscious action, lit up. It was not activated during a genuine orgasm. Even the body movements made during a real orgasm were unconscious, Holstege said.
The most striking results were seen in the parts of the brain that shut down, or deactivated. Deactivation was visible in the amygdala, a part of the brain thought to be involved in the neurobiology of fear and anxiety.
Runner up for best line? It didn't work well to test on men because, "the scanner needs activities lasting at least two minutes." Wanna just kick every man on earth right in the balls while you're down there, Doc?
Seriously though, it's an interesting article and appears to demonstrate that for women it really is all about letting go and surrendering to the moment; just like every sex advice book says. I also liked the bit about the man's reward center lighting up, while there was no similar reaction in women.
The article doesn't mention it, but I'd be curious to see a study where each partner was tested while they were the ones giving the pleasure, rather than receiving it. What do women think when their partner reaches orgasm? I mean besides the obligatory, "Already?" On the other hand, I'd think that giving his partner an orgasm would light up the male reward center like a Christmas tree, since women generally require more time and effort to achieve one, and since (seemingly) every woman has a history of past boyfriends who couldn't or didn't give them that. It would be interesting to see if that varied by the technique used, too. It's much easier to get a woman off with cunnilingus than intercourse, for instance -- how an orgasm each way register for both participants?
I'd also like to see comparisons to homosexual partners. I'd assume that there's a vast difference between ease of giving a woman an orgasm and giving one to a man, though I can't say I've actually done any field testing on one side of that equation. But just going by anecdotal evidence and reports from women, none of whom ever seem to have had any problem bringing their male partners to orgasm, I'd think there might be a difference. Try the same bi-sexual man with his girlfriend and boyfriend, perhaps? As always, I have more questions than the research can answer.
