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SYSK Selects: What happens in the brain during an orgasm? · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: M Hey everybody, it's me your old friend Josh, And
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  Speaker 1: for this week's s Y s K Selects, I've selected
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  Speaker 1: what happens in the brain during an orgasm. It's a tawdry,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: sexy look at things like oxytocin and vassip pressing and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. That's pretty good. Actually comes from Christmas
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: time two thousand eleven, so there's a festive spirit around
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  Speaker 1: it and I hope you enjoy it tremendously. Welcome to
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me
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  Speaker 1: as always as Charles W Chuck Bryant. He's got a
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: new haircut. Everybody looks really good. You can take my
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: word for short, hind tight, Yeah, high and tight makes
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: it stuff you should know. Chuck out his ears lowered.
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  Speaker 1: Have you ever heard that? And I don't think anyone
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  Speaker 1: under seventy has ever said that? Though, Yeah, well I
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  Speaker 1: just have. I took the cake. Yes, speaking of have
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: you ever heard of the origin of the word cakewalk?
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: The term cakewalk? I wrote a blog on it. You
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: should check it out. Very surprising, I'll check it out,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: very eye opening. Again, tell us just go to the
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  Speaker 1: blog blog. Um, it's so Chuck. Are you ready, Chuck? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I want to commend you. Okay, Um, just a day
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  Speaker 1: ago I woke up, checked my smartphone and found an
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  Speaker 1: email and you said, how about these first stuff you
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  Speaker 1: should know? And one of them was what happens in
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  Speaker 1: the brain during an orgasm? A week ago? I'm sorry
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  Speaker 1: last week? Yeah, what happens in the brain during an orgasm?
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  Speaker 1: And I thought, oh, man, I don't know about that one. Like,
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  Speaker 1: we've got some younger listeners, are we qualified to talk
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  Speaker 1: about this stuff? I got I started sweating. Um, it
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: was just it was a wreck. It was a terrible
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: way to wake up. Um. And I emailed you and
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: was like are you sure? And you said something that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I thought was this is why I'm commending you. You're like, look, man,
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  Speaker 1: we've done a lot of stuff on like really violent
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: things which just off the top of my head, shrunken
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: heads are step by step guide to shrinking heads or
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Jack the Cannibalism, Jack the Ripper, um, and we have
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: we've done a lot of stuff about violent stuff. And
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  Speaker 1: you're like, and I don't want to just be able
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  Speaker 1: to talk about violent stuff but not be able to
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  Speaker 1: talk about sexuality like it's bad or worse than violence.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to play ball with that scene. And
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  Speaker 1: that is very especially in America. We just celebrated Thanksgiving.
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  Speaker 1: We're a very puritanical country still, and that's absolutely true.
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  Speaker 1: Like violence is celebrated and okay, sexuality is hidden and
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  Speaker 1: it's not okay. Um, and yeah, I don't subject after
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  Speaker 1: that either. So I wanted to commend you for having
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  Speaker 1: that level of foresight insight every kind of site. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: and for um suggesting we do this. Thanks having said that,
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  Speaker 1: if you're a parent, if you're a younger listener, maybe
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  Speaker 1: should ask your parents. We're gonna be very mature about this,
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  Speaker 1: but it's not gonna be funny. But if if you uh,
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  Speaker 1: if you don't think you want your kid listening to
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  Speaker 1: uh anything about orgasms, then switch it off. Hey man,
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  Speaker 1: you're the parent, we're not. It's up to you to
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  Speaker 1: decide when you want your kid. Personally, I went to
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  Speaker 1: sex ed when I was either the fifth or sixth grade,
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  Speaker 1: So I learned about this stuff when I was like
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: from a teacher. I was like seventh or eight, Really
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I was younger. Yeah, yeah, well you're you're very experienced.
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  Speaker 1: I remember one very funny thing that happened. I can't
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  Speaker 1: say it. I wish I could. Oh yeah, yeah, one
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  Speaker 1: kid in my class, I remember his name even It
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  Speaker 1: was he asked a very funny question that he wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: meaning to be funny. And but now that I'm older
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  Speaker 1: looking back, he was asking a legit question and it was.
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  Speaker 1: It was funny. Yeah. Um, that was a great story.
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  Speaker 1: My imagination is running wild right now. All right, let's
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  Speaker 1: get to this, chuck, Yeah, let's this is a really
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  Speaker 1: this is a bang up way to start a podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Like what happens in the brain during an orgasm. Defining
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  Speaker 1: orgasm from the Oxford English Dictionary. It's dry, it's stayed,
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  Speaker 1: it's like clinical, it's perfect. It was perfect. So let's
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  Speaker 1: do that the first one. There a sudden movement, spasm, contraction,
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  Speaker 1: or convulsion, a surge of sexual excitement. That's pretty much
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  Speaker 1: on the on the head there, right, Miriam Webster. Explosive
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  Speaker 1: discharge of neuromuscular tension at the height of sexual arousal,
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  Speaker 1: usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen in the mail
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  Speaker 1: and by vaginal contractions in the female. And then famous
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  Speaker 1: smut peddler dr Alfred Kinsey. I'm sorry sex researcher. Researcher
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: l for Kinsey. What was the name of the movie
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  Speaker 1: that Ray Finds played him in? Was it just Kinsey?
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  Speaker 1: It was Kinsey and it was Liam Neeson. Oh yeah, right,
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  Speaker 1: Finds Liam Um he called an orgasm can be likened
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  Speaker 1: to the crescendo or climax and sudden stillness achieved by
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  Speaker 1: an orchestra of human emotions. Also, it could be compared
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  Speaker 1: to an explosion of tensions or to sneezing, which Shane
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  Speaker 1: of Freeman, who wrote this article, took issue with. That's
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  Speaker 1: because it's not true. That's all myth, like if you
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  Speaker 1: sneeze five times, it's like an orgasm, or you'll have
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  Speaker 1: an orgasm. I don't think that's at all what he
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  Speaker 1: was saying. Well, no, but that is an a sense
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  Speaker 1: of tension and then really immediate relief that washes over
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  Speaker 1: your body following like a heavy sneeze. I think that's
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  Speaker 1: what he was saying. Yeah, but there's an urban myth
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  Speaker 1: that if you sneeze like five or seven times in
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  Speaker 1: a row. I don't think Kinsey Dalton urban myths. That
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  Speaker 1: was a scientist and saying since then, so the point
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  Speaker 1: of all this is that the orgasm, wow, it it
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  Speaker 1: is this um sensation that washes over your body. It's
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  Speaker 1: an explosion of tensions. It's like sneezing. Uh. It's accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by ejaculation and men um. There's all these physiological experience
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  Speaker 1: is going on, but all of it is centered in
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  Speaker 1: the brain. The point is the orgasm takes place in
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  Speaker 1: the brain, and thanks to the Wonder Machine, we now
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  Speaker 1: know pretty much what's going on in the brain. We
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  Speaker 1: don't we don't fully understand orgasms, but we have a
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  Speaker 1: much clearer picture than we did even ten years ago,
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  Speaker 1: twenty years ago. Did you ever hear the Billy Connolly,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the comedian his uh, He had one bit
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  Speaker 1: where he talked about when he learned first learning of
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  Speaker 1: an orgasm, when he was like, you know, twelve years old,
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  Speaker 1: like some older friend of his or his brother or
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  Speaker 1: cousin taught him like how to achieve it and what
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  Speaker 1: it was. And he's like, you know, I did it
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  Speaker 1: and it was the best thing ever. And he said,
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  Speaker 1: and then he came back to me the next day
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  Speaker 1: and it was like, you only get one thousand of those.
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  Speaker 1: He was like, the next week, I had used them
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  Speaker 1: all up. Well, I don't know if it was a thousand,
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  Speaker 1: then I don't even know if it's gonna make it
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  Speaker 1: on the air. We'll find out. So let's start clean.
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  Speaker 1: So um, okay, so we have let's let's talk about
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  Speaker 1: where all this starts takes place. Orgasms begin in the
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  Speaker 1: genitalia and they end in the brain, Yeah, pretty much,
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  Speaker 1: that's it. Or they begin in the genitalia, go to
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  Speaker 1: the brain and then come back to the genitalia maybe,
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  Speaker 1: or they begin in the brain and then go to
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  Speaker 1: the genitalia and then back to the brain. We're gonna
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  Speaker 1: get to the bottom of this. But essentially there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of nerves involved in this, and there's um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you're not going to be surprised to find that the genitalia,
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  Speaker 1: both male and female, are extremely sensitive nerve wise. Apparently
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  Speaker 1: the clitteress um has about eight thousand nerve endings just
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  Speaker 1: in itself. Uh. Comparatively speaking, the penis, a circumcised penis
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  Speaker 1: is I understand it has about four thousand endings and
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  Speaker 1: the whole thing that glands. Oh really yes, But and
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  Speaker 1: I didn't see this substantiated anywhere, but an uncircumcised penis
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  Speaker 1: supposedly has like twenty five thousand nerve endings in it.
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  Speaker 1: That's all propaganda. Is that brought to you by the
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  Speaker 1: Circumcision Society or the Anti circumcision was It was on
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  Speaker 1: one of those sites. And also that reminds me go
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: listen to the circumcision podcast. That was a good one.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, did you just want to remind yourself that
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  Speaker 1: we can cover these things without laughing? No? I just
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  Speaker 1: remember that we did circumcision, and then I thought you
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  Speaker 1: were just like, I gotta, I gotta do this. I
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  Speaker 1: gotta be able to say the word penis without laughing.
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  Speaker 1: Penis glands. All right? Uh so what happens is you
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  Speaker 1: got all these nerve endings um during intercourse and that
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  Speaker 1: climax that will be UM messages sent through these large
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  Speaker 1: nerves that run up your spinal cord except for the
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  Speaker 1: vagus nerve, which will is very important that we mentioned
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  Speaker 1: that very bypasses the spinal cord uh and to the
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  Speaker 1: brain and tells the brain, hey, this is great, this
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  Speaker 1: feels awesome. You want to you want to do this again? Right?
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  Speaker 1: And there's a different bundles are I guess stimulated in
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  Speaker 1: different areas, right, Yeah. So you've got like the hypogastric
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  Speaker 1: nerve um, which is located in the uterus and cervics
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  Speaker 1: and women, and in the prostrate in men. So if
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  Speaker 1: you tickle these areas you can conceivably achieve orgasm through
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  Speaker 1: the hypogastric nerve. There's the pelvic nerve transmits from the
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  Speaker 1: vagina and cervix and women obviously, and from the rectum
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  Speaker 1: of both sexes. Yeah, there's some overlap here. Uh, you
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  Speaker 1: go ahead and say that next one, Uh, the pedundle nerve. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's pudendale or pudundle. I'm not sure which or pudundle,
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  Speaker 1: but either way, it's pu d E N d A L. Right,
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  Speaker 1: that's the clitterest in women and the scrotum and penis
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  Speaker 1: and men. So that's like kind of the that's the
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  Speaker 1: well established, long understood bundle of nerves, is it. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: because the whole the whole concept that a woman can
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  Speaker 1: even have an orgasm is pretty recent. It's pretty new,
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  Speaker 1: like the last century. Yeah, as far as science goes.
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  Speaker 1: You go to Europe and asked some lady a hundred
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: years ago, two hundred years she's gonna be like, what
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  Speaker 1: are you stupid? Yes, watch this they're like, oh, that's
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  Speaker 1: what that's called. We thought you just had the humors, right, Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And then you've got the vegas nerve, which we uh
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  Speaker 1: said bypasses the spinal cord. It transmits from the cervix,
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  Speaker 1: uterus and vagina and of the nerve fibers or sensory
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  Speaker 1: in the vegas nerve. So the vegas nerve is the
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  Speaker 1: money nerve um and it controls more than just orgasms. Apparently,
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  Speaker 1: if you have vegas nerve damage, you choke when you
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  Speaker 1: try to swallow liquids. We talked about that and something
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  Speaker 1: we've said vegas before, and it had to do with choking.
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  Speaker 1: I'll bet you it was either competitive eating or sword swallowing.
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  Speaker 1: Was the sword swallowing. Okay, So the vegas nerve is
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  Speaker 1: involved in swallowing as well as in umh orgasm. And
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  Speaker 1: I could only find obviously then if it's involved in swallowing,
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  Speaker 1: it's in men and women. But I could only find
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  Speaker 1: reference to the vegas nerve and orgasms in relation to
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  Speaker 1: female orgasms. But we'll get to that later. And the
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  Speaker 1: vegas nerves though, also, like you said, that's a pretty
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  Speaker 1: important nerve and it's very only recently discovered as far
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  Speaker 1: as orgasms go. But the big key to it is
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  Speaker 1: that it bypasses the spinal cord and goes straight to
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  Speaker 1: the brain, which is really really good news for a
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  Speaker 1: certain subset of the human population. Chuck a k A. Paraplegics,
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  Speaker 1: people who have suffered catastrophic spinal injuries, even people whose
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  Speaker 1: spines have been interrupted. Like their spines, their spinal cords
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  Speaker 1: are no longer connected top and bottom, they're totally paralyzed.
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  Speaker 1: They can still um come to climax, which is new
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  Speaker 1: because that was I mean wherever they said, you know,
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  Speaker 1: those days are over for you pretty much. But thank
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  Speaker 1: you Dr Barry Kamiseruk St. Kamiseruk, who we should just
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  Speaker 1: call this guy Dr Oh because he is the as
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  Speaker 1: far as I can sell, the pre eminent orgasm scientists.
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  Speaker 1: He and Whipple are he and Dr Whipple Beverly Beverly,
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  Speaker 1: That's that's what the paraplegic people call her. Of course
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  Speaker 1: they do. Uh. They are at Rutger's at rat gizz
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  Speaker 1: Go Scarlet Knights, and they did some tests on women
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  Speaker 1: in two thousand four who had severed spinal cords, and
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  Speaker 1: they found that they could feel stimulation in their cervits,
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  Speaker 1: they could reach orgasm, and they did the m r
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  Speaker 1: I and said, hey, it looks like this thing is bypassing. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they're saying this is real because the the m r
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  Speaker 1: I machine lit up like it's supposed to write, and
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  Speaker 1: like you said that, they showed that the areas of
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  Speaker 1: the brain that respond to the vegas nerve we're lighting
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  Speaker 1: up especially, and they're like, oh, it's the vegas nerve,
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  Speaker 1: which is I mean, we're not getting around. That is
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  Speaker 1: great news because that's one of the most upsetting parts
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I would imagine of spinal injury is to say goodbye
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  Speaker 1: to that part of your life, you know, to lose
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  Speaker 1: your sexuality like that. One of my um good friends
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  Speaker 1: dated a girl who was paralyzed from the waist down
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  Speaker 1: and she was able to, um, I have an orgasm,
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  Speaker 1: Thank you vegas nerve. Yeah, the vegas nerves basically proof
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  Speaker 1: that women are God's favorite. Oh yeah, no, actually, we'll
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: see that's quite the opposite. That's right. I mean, the
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: vegas nerves, it's it's pretty great for women, but overall,
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  Speaker 1: dumb lumbering men have it away better, as we'll see. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: so let's talk about the brain let's talk about the
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  Speaker 1: pleasure center a k a. Reward circuit. This is a
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  Speaker 1: pretty new Like the nineteen fifties is when they first
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  Speaker 1: kind of discovered this, and it it seems like we
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  Speaker 1: talked about this too. They did experiments on rats. They
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  Speaker 1: basically hooked them up in the skinner box and said, hey,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: if you go push this button, you're gonna get rewarded
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  Speaker 1: in a very pleasurable way in your brain. It was
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: like cocaine or something, wasn't it. I think so? And
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: they they found out that the rats really loved it,
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  Speaker 1: to the tune of about seven button pushes an hour,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and they didn't eat anymore, didn't want water anymore, just
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: there they just lay there and push this button. And
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: it wasn't cocaine. They had electro's implanted in the brain's rewards,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: so it was going into stimulating everything. Oh but I
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  Speaker 1: think it had to do with a study on drugs
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  Speaker 1: because the reward center, like sexual arousal and the high
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: from drugs is what a lot of it's going on there. Well,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: not only that, eating, laughing, hanging out with other people,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: basically anything that ensures our survival as a species or
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: as an individual. UM the reward center has something to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: do with it. And the whole point of the reward
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  Speaker 1: center is we get this release of dopamine, this pleasurable um,
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  Speaker 1: this pleasurable chemical um that teaches us, Wow, this feels
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  Speaker 1: really good. I want to do that again so I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: will survive. These rats died of exhaustion. Though. Yeah, exac's
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: so crazy, but that's where they discovered it in the fifties.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: And um, if we're gonna talk about the pleasure center,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and we should mention a few specific areas, like the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: amygdala right regulates your emotions, and we talked about the
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: brain a lot, so this is sort of rehashed. This
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: is kind of like up there with fight or Flight,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Like we talked about the reward circuit quite a bit.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: We do yeah because we like it. Well, it's a
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: great circuit. I wish I had that button. I'd be
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: pushing it seven hundred times an hour. Have to come
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: along and be like, you need to stop the nucleus accumbents,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: which I don't think we've ever mentioned on the show.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: I think we have we have that controls the release
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: of dopamine. It's part of the limbic system, and this
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: plays a really big role in sexual arousal and like
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the high you feel from from certain drugs. The v
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: t A or the ventral tegmental area that actually releases
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: the dopamine. It takes its orders from the nucleus acumbens acumbins,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the cerebellum controls your muscle function. Muscles are very important
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: uh in an orgasm, and the pituitary gland. Here's this
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: is a big one because it's not just dopamine, this
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: pleasure that you sense, like you you just you know,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: it's not just pleasure. There's other stuff going on, Like
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: there's tristesse crying after sex, Like that's not just pleasure.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: That's you're overwhelmed with emotions sometimes and that is thanks
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: to our friend the pituitary gland, which releases beta endorphins
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: that decreased pain, oxytocin which increased feelings of trust, vast
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: oppressing which increases bonding UM and a lot of these
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: same hormones and chemicals are released UM when you give birth,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: when a woman gives birth as well, which apparently forms
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: bonds between mother and child. And also UM these things
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: are released I think, like oxytocin is a lactation chemical
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: as well, yeah, so both mother and child during breastfeeding,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: UM bond have Like basically, are you overwhelmed with the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: sense of like, I really like you and I get
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: this sense you like me too, so let's hang out. Yeah.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Oxytocin is called the hormone of love and actually means
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: quick birth in Greek. And not only is it released
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: during childbirth, but it sort of facilitates childbirth and um
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: nipple stimulation. It is released and that's what makes you
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: like date, which is pretty cool and calmness. It reduces
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: your anxiety, makes you calm. So oxytocin up with oxytocin. Yeah,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Investip pressing too has similar effects as well. So you've
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: got all these chemicals flooding your body, You've got your
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: reward circuit going. Yeah, and um, this is the orgasm basically,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: especially the female orgasm. We should say, like the male
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: orgasm includes ejaculation, and it's been long understood what's going
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: on there, right, But like it's pretty much an A
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: to B relationship. Yeah. But like I said, like it
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: was pretty recent, like the middle of last century that
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: people that science came to really say like, okay, all right,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: so this is real. Women are just trying to get
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: on board here, like they they really are experiencing something.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: And then in the late nineties and um, mid two thousand's,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a group of Dutch researchers said, we're going to take
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: this mri I. We're gonna stick people in this mri I.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: We're going to bring them to orgasm and then we're
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: gonna watch what goes on in their brains. Yeah. Well,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: first they use the pet scan. Okay, right, I'm sorry.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: And actually, since you mentioned men, you told me in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: another email said this article is sexist because it only
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: talks about women almost and I look that up. Apparently
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: it's because the men's orgasm is so short it's hard
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to study it. Okay, so it's like boom, it's over,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: whereas a woman can have a prolonged orgasm, much easier
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to study that. All right, Um, to pet scan, so
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the pets can. But think about this is like the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: swing in his study. It's like King Kazy you know,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: um this is uh. These these test subjects were brought
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: to orgasm the pet they were, their brains were watched
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: with pet scans later on MRI s and what the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Dutch researchers found was that there really aren't that many
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: differences in the brains between men and women as far
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: as the pleasure circuit goes. They saw all the stuff
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: they expected to see. Um, apparently, the the brain if
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: you take a snapshot of maybe the peak of it
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: during orgasm or peak orgasm, and you compared it to
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: a snapshot of the peak of a heroin dose, Uh,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: it looks the same, one of the Dutch researchers said.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: But there are differences between men's orgasms and women's orgasms
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: as far as brain regions are concerned. And it's not
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: really surprising what they found when you hear it. It's
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: kind of intuitive, you know. Well. The other thing that
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: they found was the same, though, was that the orbital
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: orbital frontal cortex shut down for both. And that is
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: the where you the seat of reason and behavioral control
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: in your brain. So it's no surprise that that thing
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: shuts down for both of us. You just completely lose control.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: You're enthralled by your orgasm. So the differences that you
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: mentioned when a woman has sex, the I had this
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: so right earlier. Peria caductile gray p G is activated
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and uh, it saysn't here it controls fight or flight.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I got more that it provokes your defense responses and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: it's not necessarily controlling fightre flight. You know, is that right?
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Is it activating and or stimulating it? I just said
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: what I saw said it provokes your defense responses, which
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: is interesting. Okay, Well, I mean you can say defense responses,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: fight or flight. Yeah, let's she was part of it
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: at least. Uh. The woman's brains show decreased activity in
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the migla and hippocampus. This one made sense to me.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Deals with fear anxiety. So fear and anxiety are out
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the door all of a sudden. Yeah, which makes sense
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: because for a woman to have and enjoy sex, and
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: it takes um uh just physically speaking, it takes far
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: more trust than it does for a man. Yeah. And
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: emotionally right, you need to be relaxed exactly general. Uh.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: And then here was one that I thought was kind
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: of interesting. UM. The part of the cortex associated with pain,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the insular cortex, which UM is used to judge, Like them,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the ferocity basically of pain, like just how bad pain
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: is is active faded, So it's basically scanning, looking looking
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: out for pain or judging the experience based on partially
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: through the lens of pain. I think everyone's been there,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: whether it's like tickling or anything. We're like, oh, I
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: hate that, I hate that, but I love that. I
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: love that. Very fine line. Sometimes there's a very egalitarian
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: interpretation checkers, thank you. Um faking an orgasm. Not surprisingly,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: of course, it doesn't use the same part of the brain.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: There's really bears almost no resemblance whatsoever. I didn't even
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: think that should have been included. I didn't either, but
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I was mad in Shane of Freeman for being sexist
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: at the time when I read that. Now that I
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: look back on it, I still don't think it should
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: have been included. That's right, um, so, Chuck. We've been
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: giving all of the kudos and attention to people who
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: have orgasms, no problem, right, mm hmm. There are people
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: out there who, um are who who can't have orgasms,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and yes, they have an orgasmia, which is an inability
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: to achieve an orgasm. And one of the big culprits
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: are s sr eyes serotonin as something reuptake inhibitor. What
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was the other s? I can't ever Yes, selector serotonin
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: reuptake inhibitor, which keeps serotonin in your synapse is longer,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: so you cannot be depressed. The problem is it decreases
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the production the natural production of dopamine in your brain,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: and dopamine obviously is how we learn to enjoy and
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: go do something like achieving an orgasm again. So fortunately,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: once people wean themselves off of S. S R EYES
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: or start taking other drugs that increased dopamine production, usually
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: that an orgasmia goes away. Usually not all the time, sadly,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: a very small percentage. I didn't get a number, but
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I did see that it was uncommon, thankfully. Uh post
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: s s RI I. Sexual dysfunction means after you have
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: weaned yourself off and you're producing dopamine regularly, you're still
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: not able to achieve an orgasm. Right. They have no
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: idea why because they're like, your dopamines working, Like what,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: what's your problem? And this is thanks to Dr oh again, right,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: I believe, So it's all over this stuff. Uh he um.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: That's one of the main reasons he's studying the orgasm,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: by the way, is not just to like you're like,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: oh cool, look at the brain. It's to help people
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that are an orgasmic or who suffered from persistent sexual
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: arousal syndrome, which sounds horrible. Yeah, that means you're always
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: sexually aroused, but you can't achieve orgasm right right, and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: like you're genuinely always sexually aroused. Um dr oh uh.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Looked at women who have p S A s UM
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and put them in an m R I and looked
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: at their brains, and their brains are showing like, yeah,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I'm turned on right now. I'm turned on right now
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: for no reason. I can't do anything about it, but
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I'm turned on right now. And then even if I
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: try to have an orgasm, I can't take a curse.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: But the science supported it. Yeah, alright, right right, yeah,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: So I mean these people were physically sexually aroused and
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: they couldn't do anything about it. He figured out that, um,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: they can use um like meditation techniques apparently works. Um
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: basically calming techniques apparently hasn't has an impact on decreasing
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the sexual arousal. I think he's still trying to figure
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: out the an orgasm apart. Josh, did you know that
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: some people can orgasm from being touched in other parts
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of their body other than the genitalia. I did know
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: that for instance, the nipples that happened. Sometimes they think
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: that the sensations are transmitted to the same areas of
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the brain as the ones that come from your genitals,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and so it's just the brain saying all right, I'll
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: give you a little bonus there. You know, it's it's
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: lighting up the right part of the brain. So here's
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: an orgasm. Um. Apparently also knees knows people. Um, there
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: are apparently women out there who can have orgasms just
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: from imagery alone, no touching, no touching. Um. And again
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: these people are in m r s. The brain is
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: lighting up and they're saying, yep, science supports this woman
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: is actually having an orgasm from a no touch encounter,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: which is the phantom limb thing. Is what really gets me? Yeah,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: do you want to talk about that? Yeah? I mean
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: apparently some people can, do they exp Do they feel
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the orgasm in their phantom limb? Yes? Is that what
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: it's not? It doesn't generate there. So you know how
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: you have when you experience an orgasm, chuck, do you
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: know how it's concentrated in your genitalia? Imagine if that
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: sensation we're in your foot, like that's what felt good?
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Just as easily could right now. Imagine that your foot
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: had been amputated years before, but you're still feeling your
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: orgasm in your phantom foot. That's what they're talking about.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: That's nunety. Well they think what happened is um, there's
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: a basically a map of your brain. The way we
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: interpret it is as a maps called the cortical homunculous,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: and the cortical homunculous is like, Okay, this part of
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the body corresponds to this part of the brain, like
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the nerves here correspond here, and apparently if you suffer
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: an amputation, your brain is like, well, I need to
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: rewire myself and need to read map a little bit. So, um,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I'm going to assign the sensation in the foot that's
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: not there any longer to the genitalia, so the brain
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: can become confused by the genitalia being stimulated that experience
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: can be felt in the amputated foot, for example. That's
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: what scientists think right now. You can also say that
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: they have no idea what's going on. Most people are
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: reporting having orgasms and phantom limbs. I think it's my
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: new band name too, cortical homunculous. Oh, that's a good one.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I've got some breaking news, Josh. This is a surprise
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: for you. My friend Dr oh is at it again.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And this was just released on the old ap wire
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: last week. No, they kicked it up a notch and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: had ladies sit in the f m R I machine,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: which is even kicked up a notch from the regular
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: m R I And they now have the first movie
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: of the female brain as it approaches, experiences, and recovers
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: from an orgasm. So they put this couple of ladies actually,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and one of them talked about it. She did a
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: little uh, I think she blocked about it. She said
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: that one of the problems in doing this, obviously is
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: you have to not move very much at all because
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: it will disrupt the data. So they fitted her with
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a breathable plastic mesh helmet that was screwed into the
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: bed to keep her still. And umdlo, how he's got
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: an eyeswight chut for some reason. And um they told
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: her to practice being still while you know, bringing yourself
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to climax. So she uh duct taped a kittie bell
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: from her cats uh what do you call it? The
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: collar onto her forehead and for two weeks practice bringing
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: yourself to climax without ringing that bell. And she said,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I got good, good enough at it too.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Successfully do this in the experiment, and uh, it was successful.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: So you can go on the internet now and look
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: this up, um, and watch this video the animation plays. Um,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: you see the activity building up in the genitalia area
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: of the century cortex like it should. Then, um, activity
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: is spreading to the limbic system. Then it spreads to
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the limbic system, which is involved in emotion and long
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: term memory. Then as the orgasm arrives, activity shoots up
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: in two parts of the brain, the cerebellum in the
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: frontal cortex that controlled the muscular tension. To all of
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: a sudden, the muscles like contract really heavily, so that
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: shoots up during the orgasm. Um, it reaches a peak
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: in the hypothalamus and that's when it releases the oxytocin
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: and all that good stuff and causes the uterus to contract.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And I'm sorry, the nucleus acumbens is uh, that's also
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: firing off during the peak, controlling the Yeah. And then
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: afterwards everything like see, it just goes, you goes from
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: all colorful back to the cold, dead blackness, the Derito's
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: center starts becoming active. So check, there's a there's a
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: very big question that we haven't really answered. We understand
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: why men have orgasms, why do women have orgasms? Uh? Evolutionarily,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: but why? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. If
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: it's an evolutionary adaptation like it is for men, then
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: why is it so hard for some women to have orgasm? You?
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: You know, ten of women will go through their entire
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: lifetimes without ever experiencing an orgasm. That's a lot. So
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: if it's evolutionary, that just that completely pulls the rug
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: out of that whole idea, because then it should be
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: really easy for women and men, right, Okay, So one
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of the ideas that's long been bandied about is a
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: byproduct theory, like you know, why men have nipples because
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: women have nipples all humans, so at some point during
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: gestation or whatever, we still keep ours even though we
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: don't need them and don't need nipples. But we're humans
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and women need nipples, So it's yourself makes sense. I
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: don't use mine anymore. Um, they think that possibly the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: female orgasm is the same thing. Men and women are
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: both humans. Men need to have orgasms, so women do
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: as byproduct. In this really weird study that came out
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: last year of twins UM, they studied same sex twins
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and opposite sex twins, and same sex twins had similar
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: orgasm patterns, right opposite sex twins, who if it is
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: just a byproduct UM, should have the same or similar
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: orgasm patterns. It didn't hold up. So where does that
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: leave us? We have no ideas confused. They think that
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: it could possibly be an evolutionary remnant, like it was
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: strategic to our survival at some point in the distant pass,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: and it's just a relic that kind of hangs around,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: which is kind of a depressing thought because then that
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: means we're watching it as it's endangered and it's growing extinct,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and that's sad, and I think that it needs to
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: be snatched back from the grips of natural selection. Well,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: some things maybe just shouldn't be studied. Maybe you should
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: just I don't know. I'm sure there's women out there
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: saying just put those studies away. Yeah, let's just look
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: at it as a big as a big bonus, right,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: And that's thanks, big guy. That's when dr Oe flicks
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the switch and the disco ball comes down from the ceiling.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: So if you want to know more about orgasms and
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: see some pretty cool stock images of lit brains and
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: things like that, you can type in what happens in
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the brain during an orgasm. You probably just type in
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: orgasm in the search bar how stuffworks dot Com will
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: bring up some interesting cool stuff. Sure, um and uh,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I said search bar. I believe. So that means it's
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: time for a listener mail. This is about gene patenting,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I believe. And it's from Jim in New Jersey, Garden State.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I love your patent podcast. Guys at Dovetail love that
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: word very nicely with the Tech Stuff patent podcast. Yeah,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: that's what he says. I'm of the opinion that if
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: you construct a new gene, then you can patent it. However,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: if you discover a gene already existing in nature, then
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure that you should be able to patent it.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: This is just Jim's opinion. I like his opinion. Maybe
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: you can patent the process of identifying the gene seems reasonable.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Maybe you can patent a specific use of the gene,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: such as for testing, which you clearly covered as being controversial. However,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't be able to quote own the gene what
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: if it has another use. It's a good point. Uh.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: And the epilogue on the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Rebecca Scalute describes a disturbing sin area. If you provide
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: a sample of our DNA to a medical professional of
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: your own DNA, uh, and it is found to have
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a mutation that's the foundation of the next wonder drug,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: you are entitled to nothing. Yeah, So legally your sample
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: is considered trash unless you've like pre arranged some legal arrangement.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: That means you've abandoned it. That's like Henry Alas. Are
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: you familiar with her? No, I've heard that though if
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: we talked about this, Yes, she's she's kind of famous
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: in this really weird way. She's like an African American
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: lady from the forties or fifties, and um, somehow she
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: donated like her blood or some tissue or something to
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: science and it became the basis of like all scientific
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: research after that. So, like all these breakthroughs and drugs
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: and cancer blockers and all of this pharmaceutical research was
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: based on this culture that's still around her line is
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: still around why she's immortal and her face? Yes, and
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: her family has gotten nothing from it. Interesting, and you know,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: companies have made hundreds of billions of dollars off of
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: this lady's life, like her biology, and they've got nothing.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: I haven't read the book, but I've heard nothing but
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: good things about it. I'll have to check that out.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: So that's from Jim in New Jersey. Thanks Jim. Thanks
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Henrietta las Okay said, I think forties or fifties to
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: look that up. Um, and I'm it's probably even worse
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: than that, I'm sure than the way I described it,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: but I will probably end up reading it. Okay, Okay,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: I'm done. I'm ready. Let's finish this thing. That was
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: a good one. Well done. Well done to YouTube buddy
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: who kept it very mature. Tip of the camp to
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: YouTube sir offing it as well. Uh. If you want
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: to contact me and Chuck Um, you can tweet to
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: us at s Y s K podcast. You can visit
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: us on Facebook at Facebook dot com Solis Stuff you
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Should Know, and you can send us an email at
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com for more
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Visit how stuff
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: works dot com. To learn more about the podcast. Click
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: our homepage. The how Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.
• 37:19
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