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

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is always this
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Speaker 1: Charles W Chuck Bryant. He's got a new haircut. Everybody
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Speaker 1: looks really good. You can take my word for short,
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Speaker 1: high and tight. Yeah, high and tight. Makeing stuff you
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Speaker 1: should know? Chuck out his ears lowered? Have you ever
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Speaker 1: heard that? And I don't think anyone under seventy has
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Speaker 1: ever said that? Though, Yeah, well I just had. I
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Speaker 1: took the cake. Yes, speaking of have you ever heard
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Speaker 1: of the origin of the word cakewalk? The term cake walk?
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Speaker 1: I wrote a blog on it. You should check it out.
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Speaker 1: Very surprising. I'll check it out, very eye opening. Again,
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Speaker 1: tell us just go to the blog blog. Um, it's
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Speaker 1: so Chuck. Are you ready? Yes, Chuck, Yes, I want
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Speaker 1: to commend you. Okay, Um, just a day ago I
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Speaker 1: woke up, checked my smartphone and found an email and
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Speaker 1: you said, how about these for stuff you should know?
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Speaker 1: And one of them was what happens in the brain
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Speaker 1: during an orgasm? I'm sorry. Last week what happens in
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Speaker 1: the brain during an orgasm. And I thought, oh, man,
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Speaker 1: I don't know about that one. Like we've got some
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Speaker 1: younger listeners, like are we qualified to talk about this stuff?
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Speaker 1: I got I started sweating. Um, it was just it
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Speaker 1: was a wreck. It was a terrible way to wake up. Um.
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Speaker 1: And I emailed you and was like, are you sure?
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Speaker 1: And you said something that I thought was this is
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Speaker 1: why I'm commending you. You're like, look, man, we've done
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Speaker 1: a lot of stuff on like really violent things which
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Speaker 1: just off the top of my head, shrunken heads are
1:56
Speaker 1: step by step guide to shrinking heads or check the
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Speaker 1: cannibalism at the Ripper. Um, and we have we've done
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Speaker 1: a lot of stuff about violent stuff. And you're like,
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Speaker 1: and I don't want to just be able to talk
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Speaker 1: about violent stuff but not be able to talk about sexuality,
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Speaker 1: like it's bad or worse than violence. I don't want
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Speaker 1: to play ball with that scene. And that is very
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Speaker 1: especially in America. It's a scene 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. Uh, And yeah, I don't subscribe to
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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 and
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Speaker 1: forum suggesting we do this. Thanks for 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: you should ask your parents. We're gonna be very mature
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Speaker 1: about this, but it's not gonna be funny. But if
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Speaker 1: if you uh, if you don't think you want your
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Speaker 1: kid listening to uh anything about orgasms, then switch it off.
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Speaker 1: Hey man, you're the parent, we're not. It's up to
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Speaker 1: you to decide when you want your kid. Personally, I
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Speaker 1: went to sex ed when I was either the fifth
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Speaker 1: or sixth grade, so I learned about this stuff when
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Speaker 1: I was like from a teacher I was like seventh
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Speaker 1: or eight. Really I was younger. Yeah, yeah, well you're
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Speaker 1: you're very experienced. I remember one very funny thing that happened.
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Speaker 1: I can't say it. I wish I could. Oh yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: one kid in my class, I remember his name even
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Speaker 1: it was he asked a very funny question that he
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Speaker 1: wouldn't mean it to be funny. And but now that
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Speaker 1: I'm older, looking back, he was asking a legit question
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Speaker 1: and it was. It was funny. Yeah. Um, that was
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Speaker 1: a great story. My imagination is running wild right now.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's get to this, chuck. Yeah, let's this
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Speaker 1: is a really this is a bang up way to
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Speaker 1: start a podcast. Like what happens in the brain during
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Speaker 1: an orgasm? Defining orgasm from the Oxford English Dictionary. It's dry,
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Speaker 1: it's stayed, it's like clinical, it's perfect. It was perfect.
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Speaker 1: So let's 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 uh,
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Speaker 1: usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen in the male
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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
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Speaker 1: Alfred Kinsey. What was the name of the movie that
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Speaker 1: Ray Finds played him? Was it just Kinsey? It was
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Speaker 1: Kinsey and it was Liam Neeson. Yeah. Um, he called
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Speaker 1: an orgasm. It can be likened to the crescendo or
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Speaker 1: climax and sudden stillness achieved by an orchestra of human emotions. Also,
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Speaker 1: it could be compared to an explosion of tensions or
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Speaker 1: to sneezing, which Shane of Freeman, who wrote the this article,
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Speaker 1: took issue with. That's because it's not true. That's all myth,
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Speaker 1: like if you sneeze five times it's like an orgasm
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Speaker 1: where you'll have an orgasm. I don't think that's at
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Speaker 1: all what he was saying. A sense of tension and
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Speaker 1: then really immediate relief that washes over your body following
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Speaker 1: like a heavy sneeze. I think that's what he was saying. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but there's an urban myth that if you sneeze like
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Speaker 1: five or seven times in a row. I don't think
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Speaker 1: Kinsey Dalton have been myths. That was a scientist I'm
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Speaker 1: saying since then. So the point of all this is
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Speaker 1: that the orgasm, while it is this um sensation that
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Speaker 1: washes over your body, it's an explosion of tensions. It's
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Speaker 1: like sneezing. Uh, It's accompanied by ejaculation and men um.
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Speaker 1: There's all these physiological experience is going on, but all
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Speaker 1: of it is centered in the brain. The point is
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Speaker 1: the orgasm takes place in the brain. And thanks to
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Speaker 1: the Wonder Machine, we now know pretty much what's going
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Speaker 1: on in the brain. We don't we don't fully understand orgasms,
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Speaker 1: but we have a much clearer picture than we did
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Speaker 1: even ten years ago, twenty years ago. Did you ever
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Speaker 1: hear the Billy Connolly, you know, the comedian his uh
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Speaker 1: He had one bit where he talks about when he
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Speaker 1: learned first learning of an orgasm, when he was like,
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Speaker 1: you know, twelve years old, like some older friend of
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Speaker 1: his or his brother or cousin taught him like how
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Speaker 1: to achieve it and what it was, and he's like,
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Speaker 1: you know, I did it, and it was the best
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Speaker 1: thing ever, And he said, and then he came back
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Speaker 1: to me the next day and was like, you only
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Speaker 1: get one thousand of those? He was like, the next
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Speaker 1: week I had used them all up. Well, I don't
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Speaker 1: know if it was a thousand, then I don't even
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Speaker 1: know if this is gonna make it on the air.
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Speaker 1: I'll find out. So let's start clean. So um, okay,
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Speaker 1: so we have let's let's talk about where all this
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Speaker 1: starts takes place. Orgasms begin in the genitalia and they
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Speaker 1: end in the brain. Yeah, pretty much, that's it. Or
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Speaker 1: they begin in the genitaliet, go to the brain and
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Speaker 1: then come back to the genitalia. Maybe, or they begin
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Speaker 1: in the brain and then go to the genitalia end
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Speaker 1: them back to the brain. We're gonna get to the
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Speaker 1: bottom of this. But essentially there's a lot of nerves
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Speaker 1: involved in this, and there's um you know, you're not
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Speaker 1: going to be surprised to find that the genitalia, both
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Speaker 1: male and female, are extremely sensitive nerve wise. Apparently the
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Speaker 1: clitteress um is has about eight thousand nerve endings just
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Speaker 1: in itself. Uh, comparatively speaking, the penis circumcised penis is,
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Speaker 1: I understand it has about four thousand nerve 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 Anti Circumcisi was It was on one of
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Speaker 1: those sites. And also that reminds me, go listen to
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Speaker 1: the circumcision podcast. That was a good one. Did you
7:56
Speaker 1: just want to remind yourself that we can cover these
7:58
Speaker 1: things without laughing. No, I just remember that we did circumcision,
8:02
Speaker 1: and then I thought you were just like, I gotta,
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Speaker 1: I gotta do this. I gotta be able to say
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Speaker 1: the word penis without laughing. Penis gland. All right. Uh,
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Speaker 1: so what happens is you got all these nerve endings
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Speaker 1: UM during intercourse and a climax that will be UM
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Speaker 1: messages sent through these large nerves that run up your
8:20
Speaker 1: spinal cord, except for the vagus nerve, which will It
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Speaker 1: is very important that we mentioned that bypasses the spinal
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Speaker 1: cord uh and to the brain and tells the brain, Hey,
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Speaker 1: this is great, this feels awesome. You want to you
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Speaker 1: wanna do this again. And there's a different bundles there,
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Speaker 1: I guess, stimulated in different areas, right, Yeah, So you've
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Speaker 1: got like the hypogastric nerve um, which is located in
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Speaker 1: the uterus and cervix and women, and in the prostrate
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Speaker 1: in men. So if you tickle these areas you can
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Speaker 1: conceivably achieve orgasm through the hypogastric nerve. There's a pelvic
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Speaker 1: nerve transmits from the vagina and cervix and women obviously,
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Speaker 1: and from the rectum of both sexes. Yeah, there's some
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Speaker 1: overlap here. Uh, you go ahead and say that. Next one, Uh,
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Speaker 1: the pedundele nerve. Yeah, that's pudendale or pudundal I'm not
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Speaker 1: sure which, or pudundle, but either way it's p U
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Speaker 1: d E n d A L. Right, that's the clitteress
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Speaker 1: in women and the scrotum and penis and men. So
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Speaker 1: that's like kind of the that's the well established, long
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Speaker 1: understood bundle of nerves, is it. Yeah, because the whole
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Speaker 1: like the whole concept that a woman can even have
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Speaker 1: an orgasm is pretty recent. It's pretty new, like the
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Speaker 1: last century. Yeah, as far as science goes. You go
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Speaker 1: to Europe and asked some lady a hundred years ago,
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Speaker 1: two hundred years ago, I's gonna be like, what are
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Speaker 1: you stupid? Yes, watch this. They're like, oh, that's what
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Speaker 1: 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 said,
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Speaker 1: by passes 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 in 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 swords
10:27
Speaker 1: following Was it sword swallowing? Okay, so the vegas nerve
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Speaker 1: is involved in swallowing as well as in um uh orgasm.
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Speaker 1: And I could only find obviously then if it's involved
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Speaker 1: in swallowing, it's in men and women. But I could
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Speaker 1: only find reference to the vegas nerve and orgasms in
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Speaker 1: relation to female orgasms. But we'll get to that later.
10:48
Speaker 1: And the vegas nerves though, also, like you said, that's
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Speaker 1: a pretty important nerve and it's very only recently discovered
10:54
Speaker 1: as far as orgasms go. But the big key to
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Speaker 1: it is that it by hass as the spinal cord
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Speaker 1: and go straight to the brain, which is really really
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Speaker 1: good news for a certain subset of the human population
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Speaker 1: Chuck a k a. Paraplegics sample who have suffered catastrophic
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Speaker 1: spinal injuries, even people whose spines have been interrupted like
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Speaker 1: their spines. Their spinal cords are no longer connected top
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Speaker 1: and bottom. They're totally paralyzed. They can still um come
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Speaker 1: to climax, which is new because that was I mean forever.
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Speaker 1: They said, you know, those days are over for you
11:34
Speaker 1: pretty much. But thank you Dr Berry Kamiseruk St. Kamiseruk,
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Speaker 1: who we should just call this guy Dr Oh because
11:44
Speaker 1: he is the as far as I can sell, the
11:46
Speaker 1: pre eminent orgasm scientists. He and Whipple are he and
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Speaker 1: Dr Whipple Beverly Beverly, That's that's what the paraplegic people
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Speaker 1: call her. Of course they do. Uh. They are at
11:58
Speaker 1: Rutger's at rat giz goos Arlette nights. And they did
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Speaker 1: some tests on women in two thousand four who had
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Speaker 1: severed spinal cords, and they found that they could feel
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Speaker 1: stimulation in their cervicts. They could reach orgasm, and they
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Speaker 1: did the m r I and said, hey, it looks
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Speaker 1: like this thing is bypassing. Yeah, they're saying this is
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Speaker 1: real because the the m r I machine lit up
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Speaker 1: like it's supposed to write, and like you said that,
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Speaker 1: they showed that the areas of the brain that respond
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Speaker 1: to the vegas nerve we're lighting up especially, and they're like, oh,
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Speaker 1: it's the vegas nerve, which is I mean, we're not
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Speaker 1: getting around. That is great news because that's one of
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Speaker 1: the most upsetting parts I would imagine of spinal injury
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Speaker 1: is to say goodbye to that part of your life,
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Speaker 1: you know, to lose your sexuality like that. One of
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Speaker 1: my um good friends stated a girl who was paralyzed
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Speaker 1: from the waist down and she was able to um,
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Speaker 1: I have an orgasm. Thank you, vegas nerve. Yeah, the
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Speaker 1: vegas nerves basically proof that him in our God's favorite.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, actually, we'll see that's quite the opposite.
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Speaker 1: That's right. I mean the vegas nervous it's it's pretty
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Speaker 1: great for women, but overall, dumb lumbering men have it
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Speaker 1: a way better. Yeah, as we'll see. Okay, so let's
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Speaker 1: talk about the brain. Let's talk about the pleasure center
13:21
Speaker 1: a k a. Reward circuit. This is a pretty new
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Speaker 1: Like the nineteen fifties is when they first kind of
13:28
Speaker 1: discovered this, and it seems like we talked about this too.
13:31
Speaker 1: They did experiments on rats. They basically hooked them up
13:35
Speaker 1: in the skinner box and said, hey, if you go
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Speaker 1: push this button, you're gonna get rewarded in a very
13:41
Speaker 1: pleasurable way in your brain. It was like cocaine or something,
13:44
Speaker 1: wasn't it. I think so? And they they found out
13:48
Speaker 1: that the brats really loved it, to the tune of
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Speaker 1: about seven button pushes an hour, and they didn't eat anymore,
13:55
Speaker 1: didn't want water anymore. They just lay there and push
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Speaker 1: this button. And it was and cocaine. They had electro's
14:01
Speaker 1: implanted in the brain's rewards, so it was going and
14:03
Speaker 1: just stimulating everything. No, but I think it had to
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Speaker 1: do with a study on drugs, because the reward center,
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Speaker 1: like sexual arousal and the high from drugs, is what
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Speaker 1: a lot of it's going on there. Well, not only that, eating, laughing,
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Speaker 1: hanging out with other people, basically anything that ensures our
14:20
Speaker 1: survival as a species or as an individual. Um, the
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Speaker 1: reward center has something to do with it. And the
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Speaker 1: whole point of the reward center is we get this
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Speaker 1: release of dopamine, this pleasurable um, this pleasurable chemical um
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Speaker 1: that teaches us, wow, this feels really good. I want
14:36
Speaker 1: to do that again, so I will survive. These rats
14:39
Speaker 1: died of exhaustion, though, Yeah, exactly, that's so crazy, but
14:43
Speaker 1: that's where they discovered it in the fifties. And um,
14:46
Speaker 1: if we're gonna talk about the pleasure center, and we
14:48
Speaker 1: should mention a few specific areas, like the amygdala right
14:51
Speaker 1: regulates your emotions, and we talked about the brain a lot,
14:54
Speaker 1: so this is sort of rehashed. This is kind of
14:56
Speaker 1: like up there with fight or flight, Like we talked
14:58
Speaker 1: about the reward circuit quite a bit. We do because
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Speaker 1: we like it. Well, it's a great circuit. I wish
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Speaker 1: I had that button. I'd be pushing it seven hundred
15:04
Speaker 1: times an hour and I have to come along and
15:06
Speaker 1: be like, you need to stop. The nucleus accumbents, which
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Speaker 1: I don't think we've ever mentioned on the show. I
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Speaker 1: think we have we have that controls the release of dopamine.
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Speaker 1: It's part of the limbic system and this plays a
15:20
Speaker 1: really big role in sexual arousal and like the high
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Speaker 1: you feel from from certain drugs. The v t A
15:27
Speaker 1: or the ventral tegmental area that actually releases the dopamine,
15:31
Speaker 1: It takes its orders from the nucleus acumens a cumbins.
15:35
Speaker 1: The cerebellum controls your muscle function. Muscles are very important,
15:39
Speaker 1: uh in an orgasm and the pituitary gland. Here's this
15:42
Speaker 1: is a big one because it's not just dopamine the
15:45
Speaker 1: pleasure that you've since like you you just you know,
15:49
Speaker 1: it's not just pleasure. There's other stuff going on, Like
15:52
Speaker 1: there's tristesse crying after sex, Like that's not just pleasure.
15:57
Speaker 1: That's you're overwhelmed with emotions sometimes and that is thanks
16:00
Speaker 1: to our friend the pituitary gland, which releases beta endorphins
16:04
Speaker 1: that decreased pain, oxytocin, which increased feelings of trust that's oppressing,
16:09
Speaker 1: which increases bonding UM and a lot of these same
16:12
Speaker 1: hormones and chemicals are released UM when you give birth,
16:17
Speaker 1: when a woman gives birth as well, which apparently forms
16:20
Speaker 1: bonds between mother and child. And also UM these things
16:24
Speaker 1: are released I think like oxytocin is a lactation chemical
16:28
Speaker 1: as well, so both mother and child during breastfeeding UM
16:32
Speaker 1: bond have like basically re overwhelmed with the sense of like,
16:36
Speaker 1: I really like you, and I get this sense you
16:38
Speaker 1: like me too, so let's hang out. Yeah. Oxytocin is
16:42
Speaker 1: called the hormone of love and actually means quick birth
16:45
Speaker 1: in Greek. And not only is it released during childbirth,
16:49
Speaker 1: but it sort of facilitates childbirth and um, nipple stimulation,
16:56
Speaker 1: it is released and that's what makes you lack DA
16:58
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool and calmness. It reduces your anxiety,
17:02
Speaker 1: makes you calm. So ocutosin up with oxytocin. Yeah. Investip
17:06
Speaker 1: pressing too has similar effects as well. So you've got
17:10
Speaker 1: all these chemicals flooding your body, You've got your reward
17:14
Speaker 1: circuit going. Yeah, and um, this is the orgasm basically,
17:21
Speaker 1: especially the female orgasm. We should say, like the male
17:24
Speaker 1: orgasm includes ejaculation, and it's been long understood what's going
17:30
Speaker 1: on there, right, But like it's pretty much an A
17:33
Speaker 1: to B relationship. Yeah. But like I said, like it
17:36
Speaker 1: was pretty recent, like the middle of last century that
17:39
Speaker 1: people that science came to really say like, okay, all right,
17:42
Speaker 1: so this is real. Women are just trying to get
17:45
Speaker 1: on board here, like they they really are experiencing something.
17:48
Speaker 1: And then in the late nineties and um, mid two thousands,
17:52
Speaker 1: a group of Dutch researchers said, we're going to take
17:55
Speaker 1: this m ri I, We're gonna stick people in this
17:57
Speaker 1: mri I, We're going to bring them to orgasm and
18:00
Speaker 1: then we're gonna watch what goes on in their brains. Yeah,
18:02
Speaker 1: well first they use the PET scan. Okay, you're right.
18:05
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. And actually, since you mentioned men, you told
18:08
Speaker 1: me in another email said this article is sexist because
18:11
Speaker 1: it only talks about women almost and I looked that up.
18:16
Speaker 1: Apparently it's because the men's orgasm is so short it's
18:19
Speaker 1: hard to study it. Okay, so it's like boom, it's over,
18:24
Speaker 1: whereas a woman can have a prolonged orgasm. Much easier
18:27
Speaker 1: to study that. All right, Um, to pet scan. So
18:32
Speaker 1: the PET scan. But think about this is like the
18:34
Speaker 1: swing in his study since like King Kazy, you know, um,
18:38
Speaker 1: this is uh. These these test subjects were brought to
18:42
Speaker 1: orgasm that pet they were their brains were watched with
18:45
Speaker 1: PET scans later on MRI s and what the Dutch
18:49
Speaker 1: researchers found was that there really aren't that many differences
18:54
Speaker 1: in the brains between men and women as far as
18:58
Speaker 1: the pleasure circuit goes. They saw all the stuff they
19:00
Speaker 1: expected to see. Um. Apparently, the the the brain if
19:05
Speaker 1: you take a snapshot of maybe the peak of it
19:07
Speaker 1: during orgasm or peak orgasm, and you compared it to
19:10
Speaker 1: a snapshot of the peak of a heroin dose. Uh,
19:14
Speaker 1: it looks the same, one of the Dutch researchers said,
19:19
Speaker 1: But there are differences between men's orgasms and women's orgasms
19:23
Speaker 1: as far as brain regions are concerned. And it's not
19:25
Speaker 1: really surprising what they found when you hear it. It's
19:28
Speaker 1: kind of intuitive, you know. Well. The other thing that
19:30
Speaker 1: they found was the same, though, is that the orbital
19:33
Speaker 1: orbital frontal cortex shut down for both. And that is
19:37
Speaker 1: the where you the seat of reason and behavioral control
19:40
Speaker 1: in your brain. So it's no surprise that that thing
19:43
Speaker 1: shuts down for both of us. You just completely lose control.
19:46
Speaker 1: You're enthralled by your orgasm. So the differences that you
19:51
Speaker 1: mentioned when a woman has sex, the I had this
19:55
Speaker 1: so right earlier period coductile gray PG is activated and
20:02
Speaker 1: uh it saysn't here controls fight or flight. I got
20:05
Speaker 1: more that it provokes your defense responses and it's not
20:09
Speaker 1: necessarily controlling fightre flight. You know? Is that right? Is
20:12
Speaker 1: it activating and or stimulating it? It just said what
20:15
Speaker 1: I saw is said it provokes your defense responses, which
20:18
Speaker 1: is interesting. Okay, Well, I mean you can say defense
20:22
Speaker 1: responses fight or flight. Yeah, that's true. Was part of
20:24
Speaker 1: it at least. Uh. The woman's brain showed decreased activity
20:27
Speaker 1: in the middala and hippocampus. This one made sense to me.
20:30
Speaker 1: Deals with fear anxiety. So fear and anxiety are out
20:33
Speaker 1: the door all of a sudden. Yeah, which makes sense
20:35
Speaker 1: because for a woman to have and enjoy sex, and
20:39
Speaker 1: it takes um. Just physically speaking, it takes far more
20:44
Speaker 1: trust than it does for a man, and emotionally, right,
20:47
Speaker 1: you need to be relaxed general. Uh. And then here
20:51
Speaker 1: was one that I thought was kind of interesting. UM.
20:53
Speaker 1: The part of the cortex associated with pain, the insular cortex,
20:57
Speaker 1: which UM is used to judge like the the ferocity
21:02
Speaker 1: basically of pain, like just how bad pain is, is activated.
21:05
Speaker 1: So it's basically scanning, looking looking out for pain, or
21:09
Speaker 1: judging the experience based on partially through the lens of pain.
21:14
Speaker 1: I think everyone's been there, whether it's like tickling or anything.
21:18
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, I hate that, I hate that, but
21:19
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. Very fine line. Sometimes
21:23
Speaker 1: there's a very egalitarian interpretation checkers, thank you. UM. Faking
21:28
Speaker 1: an orgasm. Not surprisingly, of course, it doesn't use the
21:31
Speaker 1: same part of the brain. There's really bears almost no
21:34
Speaker 1: resemblance whatsoever. I didn't even think that should have been included.
21:37
Speaker 1: I didn't either, but I was mad in shanea Freeman
21:40
Speaker 1: for being sexist at the time when I read that.
21:43
Speaker 1: Now that I look back on it, I still don't
21:45
Speaker 1: think it should have been included. That's right, um so, Chuck.
21:50
Speaker 1: We've been giving all of the kudos and attention to
21:54
Speaker 1: people who have orgasms, no problem, right, m hmm. There
21:58
Speaker 1: are people out there who, um are who who can't
22:04
Speaker 1: have orgasms, and yes, they have an orgasmia, which is
22:09
Speaker 1: an inability to achieve an orgasm. And one of the
22:13
Speaker 1: big culprits are S SR eyes serotonin as something reuptake inhibitor.
22:21
Speaker 1: What was the other s? I can't Yes, select serotonin
22:25
Speaker 1: reuptake inhibitor, which keeps serotonin in your synapses longer, so
22:29
Speaker 1: you cannot be depressed. The problem is it decreases the
22:33
Speaker 1: production the natural production of dopamine in your brain, and dopamine,
22:37
Speaker 1: obviously is how we learn to enjoy and go do
22:41
Speaker 1: something like achieving an orgasm again. So fortunately, once people
22:47
Speaker 1: wean themselves off of S S R eyes or start
22:50
Speaker 1: taking other drugs, that increased dopamine production, usually that an
22:53
Speaker 1: orgasmia goes away, usually not all the time. Sadly a
22:58
Speaker 1: very small person enage. I didn't get a number, but
23:01
Speaker 1: I did see that was uncommon, thankfully. Uh post s
23:06
Speaker 1: s ri I. Sexual dysfunction means after you have weaned
23:09
Speaker 1: yourself off and you're producing dopamine regularly, you're still not
23:13
Speaker 1: able to achieve an orgasm. Right. They have no idea
23:16
Speaker 1: why because they're like, your dopamines working, Like what, what's
23:19
Speaker 1: your problem? And this is thanks to Dr oh again, right,
23:23
Speaker 1: I believe, so it's all over this stuff. Uh he um.
23:29
Speaker 1: That's one of the main reasons he's studying the orgasm.
23:31
Speaker 1: By the way, it's not just to like like, oh cool,
23:34
Speaker 1: look at the brain. It's to help people that are
23:37
Speaker 1: an orgasmic or who suffered from persistent sexual arousal syndrome,
23:42
Speaker 1: which sounds horrible. Yeah. That means you're always sexually aroused,
23:46
Speaker 1: but you can't achieve orgasm right right, and like you're
23:49
Speaker 1: genuinely always sexually aroused. Um. Dr oh uh looked at
23:54
Speaker 1: women who have p s A s UM and put
23:58
Speaker 1: them in an mri I and looked at their brains
24:00
Speaker 1: and their brains are showing like, yeah, I'm turned on
24:03
Speaker 1: right now. I'm turned on right now for no good reason.
24:05
Speaker 1: I can't do anything about it. But I'm turned on
24:08
Speaker 1: right now. And then even if I try to have
24:10
Speaker 1: an orgasm, I can't. But the science supported it. Yeah, alright, right, right, yeah,
24:18
Speaker 1: So I mean these people were physically sexually aroused and
24:21
Speaker 1: they couldn't do anything about it. He figured out that, um,
24:24
Speaker 1: they can use um like meditation techniques apparently works. Um
24:31
Speaker 1: basically calming techniques apparently hasn't has an impact on decreasing
24:36
Speaker 1: the sexual arousal. I think he's still trying to figure
24:39
Speaker 1: out the an orgasmia part. Josh, did you know that
24:43
Speaker 1: some people can orgasm from being touched in other parts
24:47
Speaker 1: of their body other than the genitalium. I did know that,
24:50
Speaker 1: for instance, the nipples that happened. Sometimes they think that
24:54
Speaker 1: these sensations are transmitted to the same areas of the
24:57
Speaker 1: brain as the ones that come from your genitals, and
25:00
Speaker 1: so it's just the brain saying all right, I'll give
25:03
Speaker 1: you a little bonus there. You know, it's it's lighting
25:08
Speaker 1: up the right part of the brain. So here's an orgasm.
25:10
Speaker 1: Um Apparently also knees knows people. Um, there apparently women
25:16
Speaker 1: out there who can have orgasms just from imagery alone,
25:19
Speaker 1: no touching, no touching. Um. And again these people are
25:24
Speaker 1: in m r s. The brain is lighting up and
25:27
Speaker 1: they're saying it science supports this woman is actually having
25:30
Speaker 1: an orgasm from a no touch encounter. The phantom limb
25:35
Speaker 1: thing is what it really gets me. Yeah, do you
25:37
Speaker 1: want to talk about that? Yeah? I mean apparently some
25:39
Speaker 1: people can. Did they do they feel the orgasm in
25:44
Speaker 1: their phantom limb? Yes? Is that what it's not? It
25:47
Speaker 1: doesn't generate there. So you know how you have when
25:50
Speaker 1: you experience an orgasm, chuck, You know how it's concentrated
25:55
Speaker 1: in your genitalia. Imagine if that sensation we're in your foot,
26:00
Speaker 1: like that's what felt good, just as easily could right now.
26:04
Speaker 1: Imagine that your foot have been amputated years before, but
26:08
Speaker 1: you're still feeling your orgasm in your phantom foot. That's
26:11
Speaker 1: what they're talking about that. Well, they think what happened
26:14
Speaker 1: is Um. There's a basically a map of your brain.
26:18
Speaker 1: The way we interpret it is as a maps called
26:20
Speaker 1: the cortical homunculous and the cortical homunculous is like, Okay,
26:23
Speaker 1: this part of the body corresponds to this part of
26:26
Speaker 1: the brain, like the nerves here correspond here. And apparently
26:30
Speaker 1: if you suffer an amputation, your brain is like, well,
26:34
Speaker 1: I need to rewire myself and need to remap a
26:36
Speaker 1: little bit. So, um, I'm going to assign the sensation
26:42
Speaker 1: in the foot that's not there any longer to the genitalia,
26:45
Speaker 1: so the brain can become confused by the genitalia being
26:50
Speaker 1: stimulated that experience can be felt in the amputated foot,
26:54
Speaker 1: for example. That's what scientists think right now. You can
26:58
Speaker 1: also say that they have no idea what's going but
27:00
Speaker 1: people are reporting having orgasms and phantom limbs. I think
27:03
Speaker 1: it's my new band name, too, Cortical homunculous. I've got
27:09
Speaker 1: some breaking news, Josh. This is a surprise for you.
27:12
Speaker 1: My friend Dr oh is at it again. And this
27:16
Speaker 1: was just released on the old ap wire last week. No,
27:23
Speaker 1: they kicked it up a notch and had ladies sit
27:27
Speaker 1: in the f m R I machine, which is even
27:30
Speaker 1: kicked up a notch from the regular m R I
27:33
Speaker 1: And they now have the first movie of the female
27:37
Speaker 1: brain as it approaches experiences and recovers from an orgasm.
27:42
Speaker 1: So they put this couple of ladies actually, and one
27:44
Speaker 1: of them talked about it. She did a little uh,
27:47
Speaker 1: I think she blocked about it. She said that one
27:50
Speaker 1: of the problems in doing this, obviously is you have
27:53
Speaker 1: to not move very much at all because it will
27:55
Speaker 1: disrupt the data. So they fitted her with a breathable
27:59
Speaker 1: plastic mesh helmet that was screwed into the bed to
28:02
Speaker 1: keep her still. And um, how he's got an eyeswight
28:09
Speaker 1: chut for some reason. And um, they told her to
28:12
Speaker 1: practice being still while you know, bringing yourself to climax.
28:17
Speaker 1: So she uh, duct taped a kittie bell from her
28:22
Speaker 1: cats uh what do you call it? The collar onto
28:26
Speaker 1: her forehead and for two weeks practice bringing yourself to
28:30
Speaker 1: climax without ringing that bell. And she said, you know,
28:34
Speaker 1: I got good, good enough at it to successfully do
28:36
Speaker 1: this in the experiment, and uh, it was successful. So
28:40
Speaker 1: you can go on the internet now and look this up,
28:42
Speaker 1: um and watch this video the animation plays. Um, you
28:45
Speaker 1: see the activity building up in the Genitalia area of
28:49
Speaker 1: the century cortex like it should. Then, um, activity is
28:53
Speaker 1: spreading to the limbic system. Then it spreads to the
28:56
Speaker 1: limbic system, which is involved in emotion and long term memory.
29:00
Speaker 1: Then as the orgasm arrives, activity shoots up in two
29:03
Speaker 1: parts of the brain, the cerebellum in the frontal cortex
29:07
Speaker 1: that controlled the muscular tension. So all of a sudden,
29:10
Speaker 1: the muscles like contract really heavily, so that shoots up
29:14
Speaker 1: during the orgasm um it reaches a peak in the hypothalamus,
29:18
Speaker 1: and that's when it releases the oxytocin and all that
29:20
Speaker 1: good stuff and causes the uterus to contract and I'm sorry,
29:26
Speaker 1: the nucleus acumbens is uh, that's also firing off during
29:31
Speaker 1: the peak because controlling the release of yeah, and then
29:34
Speaker 1: afterwards everything like you see, it just goes. You goes
29:38
Speaker 1: from all colorful back to the cold, dead blackness of
29:42
Speaker 1: your brain. The Derrito's center starts becoming active. So check.
29:50
Speaker 1: There's a there's a very big question that we haven't
29:53
Speaker 1: really answered. We understand why men have orgasms. Why do
29:58
Speaker 1: women have orgasms evolutionarily? But why? I mean, it doesn't
30:05
Speaker 1: make any sense. If it's an evolutionary adaptation like it
30:09
Speaker 1: is for men, then why is it so hard for
30:11
Speaker 1: some women to have orgasm? You you know, ten of
30:16
Speaker 1: women will go through their entire lifetimes without ever experience
30:19
Speaker 1: any or an orgasm. That's a lot. So if it's evolutionary,
30:26
Speaker 1: that just that completely pulls the rug out of that
30:29
Speaker 1: whole idea, because then it should be really easy for
30:31
Speaker 1: women and men. Right, Okay, So one of the ideas
30:35
Speaker 1: that's long been bandied about is a byproduct theory, like,
30:39
Speaker 1: you know why men have nipples because women have nipples
30:42
Speaker 1: all humans, so at some point during gestation or whatever,
30:45
Speaker 1: we still keep ours even though we don't need them
30:47
Speaker 1: and don't need nipples. But we're humans and women need nipples,
30:51
Speaker 1: so it makes sense I don't use mine anymore. Um.
30:56
Speaker 1: They think that possibly the female orgasm is the same
30:58
Speaker 1: thing men and women are both humans. Men need to
31:02
Speaker 1: have orgasms, so women do as byproduct. In this really
31:06
Speaker 1: weird study that came out last year of twins, um,
31:10
Speaker 1: they studied same sex twins and opposite sex twins, and
31:13
Speaker 1: same sex twins had similar orgasm patterns. Right opposite sex twins, who,
31:20
Speaker 1: if it is just a byproduct, um, should have the
31:23
Speaker 1: same or similar orgasm patterns. It didn't hold up. So
31:28
Speaker 1: where does that leave us? Well, we have no ideas.
31:30
Speaker 1: Con They think that it could possibly be an evolutionary remnant,
31:34
Speaker 1: like it was uh strategic to our survival at some
31:38
Speaker 1: point in the distant pass and it's just a relic
31:40
Speaker 1: that kind of hangs around, which is kind of a
31:42
Speaker 1: depressing thought because then that means we're watching it as
31:44
Speaker 1: it's endangered and it's growing extinct, and that's sad, and
31:49
Speaker 1: I think that it needs to be snatched back from
31:53
Speaker 1: the grips of natural selection. Well, some things maybe just
31:57
Speaker 1: shouldn't be studied. Maybe you should just the I don't know,
32:01
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's women out there saying just put those
32:03
Speaker 1: studies away. Yeah, let's just look at it as a
32:05
Speaker 1: big as a big bonus. And that's thanks, big guy.
32:09
Speaker 1: That's when dr Oe flicks the switch and the disco
32:12
Speaker 1: ball comes down from the ceiling. So if you want
32:15
Speaker 1: to know more about orgasms and see some pretty cool
32:18
Speaker 1: stock images of lit brains and things like that, you
32:21
Speaker 1: can type in what happens in the brain during an orgasm?
32:26
Speaker 1: You probably just type in orgasm in the search bart
32:29
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. It will bring up some
32:31
Speaker 1: interesting cool stuff. Sure, um and uh, I said search bar.
32:36
Speaker 1: I believe. So that means it's time for a listener
32:38
Speaker 1: mail Josh. Before we move on, we have to uh
32:43
Speaker 1: announce I believe, one final time about our contest. That's
32:47
Speaker 1: the last time because the contest ends December thirty one,
32:50
Speaker 1: I believe. Right. You have to enter to win, as
32:51
Speaker 1: they say, yeah, and you have to enter only through Facebook. Yes,
32:55
Speaker 1: you have to like the house stuff Works dot Com
32:57
Speaker 1: facebook page, not the stuff you Should Know page. We
33:00
Speaker 1: and I say this enough yet still people right in
33:03
Speaker 1: on our stuff you should know well and say where
33:04
Speaker 1: do you enter how stuffworks dot Com? Like it? You
33:08
Speaker 1: have to enter a few small details nothing to uh
33:11
Speaker 1: uh obtrusive? Right, nothing too intrusive? What did I say? Uh?
33:17
Speaker 1: You have through the end of the year, through December
33:19
Speaker 1: thirty one to enter. We're gonna announce the winner the
33:21
Speaker 1: first week of the year. What a great way to
33:23
Speaker 1: start your year off, exactly like knowing that you're coming
33:26
Speaker 1: to me. A couple of grand prize is you get
33:30
Speaker 1: to fly to Atlanta up to five dollars air fair covered, uh,
33:35
Speaker 1: stay in a hotel covered, get an Amex gift cards
33:39
Speaker 1: hundred bucks for like um nail clippers because you can't
33:43
Speaker 1: fly with those. That's right? And uh, if you refer someone.
33:46
Speaker 1: You can tweet it out or say this is my
33:48
Speaker 1: Facebook status as I just entered this. If you refer
33:51
Speaker 1: someone and they win after they entered, then you win
33:54
Speaker 1: a kindle fire, right, and you don't have to keep
33:56
Speaker 1: track of that. We have like people who who track
33:59
Speaker 1: those metrics. There's an algorithm. Yeah, so it's it's it's
34:02
Speaker 1: a pretty cool contest, pretty straightforward. But we get to
34:05
Speaker 1: go to lunch. I don't think we said that. You
34:06
Speaker 1: come to the office, you get a tour, Yeah, we
34:08
Speaker 1: got we take you to lunch. We take you to lunch.
34:11
Speaker 1: Yeah with Jerry, Jerry's coming. We're not gonna make you
34:13
Speaker 1: spend that m X gift card on it. That's for you.
34:16
Speaker 1: Although if they want to buy me Neil clippers, I'm
34:18
Speaker 1: not gonna stop. And uh, sorry to those of you
34:21
Speaker 1: in other countries. I know it's a rub that you
34:24
Speaker 1: have to be in the United States here, but we
34:27
Speaker 1: can't win your lotteries or your contest in New Zealand,
34:29
Speaker 1: so you can't win on ours. It's just the way
34:31
Speaker 1: contests work. Yes, and uh, just go to the House
34:35
Speaker 1: Stuff Works Facebook page and I'm sure there'll be some
34:37
Speaker 1: sort of something up that says Hey, you should enter
34:41
Speaker 1: this contest. Agreed. Okay, so I think we should get
34:45
Speaker 1: on with it. That's right, Josh. This is about gene patenting,
34:50
Speaker 1: I believe. And it's from Jim in New Jersey, Garden State.
34:56
Speaker 1: I loves your patent podcast. Guys at Dovetail about that
34:59
Speaker 1: word very nicely with the Tech Stuff patent podcast. Yeah,
35:04
Speaker 1: that's what he says. I'm of the opinion that if
35:07
Speaker 1: you construct a new gene, then you can patent it. However,
35:11
Speaker 1: if you discover a gene already existing in nature, then
35:14
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that you should be able to patent it.
35:16
Speaker 1: This is just Jim's opinion. Maybe you can patent the
35:19
Speaker 1: process of identifying the gene seems reasonable. Maybe you can
35:23
Speaker 1: patent a specific use of the gene, such as for testing,
35:26
Speaker 1: which you clearly covered as being controversial. However, you shouldn't
35:30
Speaker 1: be able to quote own the gene, what if it
35:33
Speaker 1: has another use. It's good point and the epilogue on
35:37
Speaker 1: the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Scalute describes a
35:41
Speaker 1: disturbing scenario if you provide a sample of our DNA
35:45
Speaker 1: to a medical professional of your own DNA UH and
35:49
Speaker 1: it is found to have a mutation that's the foundation
35:51
Speaker 1: of the next wonder drug. You are entitled to nothing,
35:55
Speaker 1: so legally your sample is considered trash unless you've like
35:59
Speaker 1: pre arranged some legal arrangement. That means you've abandoned it.
36:03
Speaker 1: That's like Henry Alas. Are you familiar with her now,
36:06
Speaker 1: I've heard that though if we talked about this, Yeah,
36:08
Speaker 1: she's she's kind of famous in this really weird way.
36:11
Speaker 1: She's like an African American lady from the forties or fifties,
36:15
Speaker 1: and um, somehow she donated like her blood or some
36:19
Speaker 1: tissue or something to science and it became the basis
36:24
Speaker 1: of like all scientific research after that. So, like all
36:28
Speaker 1: these breakthroughs and drugs and cancer blockers and all of
36:33
Speaker 1: this pharmaceutical research was based on this culture that's still around.
36:37
Speaker 1: Her line is still around. Why she's immortal and her yes,
36:40
Speaker 1: and her family has gotten nothing from it. Interesting, and
36:44
Speaker 1: you know, companies have made hundreds of billions of dollars
36:47
Speaker 1: off of this lady's life, like her biology, and they've
36:52
Speaker 1: got nothing. I haven't read the book, but I've heard
36:54
Speaker 1: nothing but good things about it. To check that out.
36:56
Speaker 1: So that's from GYM and New Jersey. Thanks Jim. Thanks
37:00
Speaker 1: Henry at Thelas Okay said, I think forties or fifties.
37:05
Speaker 1: Look that up, um, and I'm it's probably even worse
37:09
Speaker 1: than that, I'm sure than the way I described it,
37:12
Speaker 1: but I will probably end up reading it. Okay, Okay,
37:16
Speaker 1: I'm done. I'm ready. Let's finish this thing. That was
37:20
Speaker 1: a good one. Well done. Well done to YouTube buddy
37:22
Speaker 1: who kept it very mature. Tip of the camp to
37:26
Speaker 1: YouTube Sir dolphing it as well. Uh. If you want
37:30
Speaker 1: to contact me and Chuck Um, you can tweet to
37:34
Speaker 1: us at s y s K podcast. You can visit
37:37
Speaker 1: us on Facebook at Facebook dot com, So Stuff you
37:39
Speaker 1: should Know, and you can send us an email at
37:42
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37:50
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37:52
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37:55
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37:58
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