WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: What happens in the brain during an orgasm? 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.080 M Hey everybody, it's me your old friend Josh, And 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.440 for this week's s Y s K Selects, I've selected 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:12.520 what happens in the brain during an orgasm. It's a tawdry, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:18.880 sexy look at things like oxytocin and vassip pressing and 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.040 stuff like that. That's pretty good. Actually comes from Christmas 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.040 time two thousand eleven, so there's a festive spirit around 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:34.400 it and I hope you enjoy it tremendously. Welcome to 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:43.840 Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.559 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.800 as always as Charles W Chuck Bryant. He's got a 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.040 new haircut. Everybody looks really good. You can take my 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:57.080 word for short, hind tight, Yeah, high and tight makes 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.760 it stuff you should know. Chuck out his ears lowered. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.720 Have you ever heard that? And I don't think anyone 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.399 under seventy has ever said that? Though, Yeah, well I 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:10.959 just have. I took the cake. Yes, speaking of have 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.200 you ever heard of the origin of the word cakewalk? 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.320 The term cakewalk? I wrote a blog on it. You 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.880 should check it out. Very surprising, I'll check it out, 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.440 very eye opening. Again, tell us just go to the 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:29.760 blog blog. Um, it's so Chuck. Are you ready, Chuck? Yes, 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:34.880 I want to commend you. Okay, Um, just a day 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:41.000 ago I woke up, checked my smartphone and found an 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.440 email and you said, how about these first stuff you 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.200 should know? And one of them was what happens in 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:50.800 the brain during an orgasm? A week ago? I'm sorry 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.880 last week? Yeah, what happens in the brain during an orgasm? 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.720 And I thought, oh, man, I don't know about that one. Like, 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.840 we've got some younger listeners, are we qualified to talk 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:06.120 about this stuff? I got I started sweating. Um, it 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:07.840 was just it was a wreck. It was a terrible 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.360 way to wake up. Um. And I emailed you and 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.800 was like are you sure? And you said something that 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.040 I thought was this is why I'm commending you. You're like, look, man, 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.960 we've done a lot of stuff on like really violent 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.040 things which just off the top of my head, shrunken 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.680 heads are step by step guide to shrinking heads or 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.960 Jack the Cannibalism, Jack the Ripper, um, and we have 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.960 we've done a lot of stuff about violent stuff. And 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.760 you're like, and I don't want to just be able 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:38.359 to talk about violent stuff but not be able to 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:42.359 talk about sexuality like it's bad or worse than violence. 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.280 I don't want to play ball with that scene. And 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.160 that is very especially in America. We just celebrated Thanksgiving. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.400 We're a very puritanical country still, and that's absolutely true. 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:56.920 Like violence is celebrated and okay, sexuality is hidden and 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.160 it's not okay. Um, and yeah, I don't subject after 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.280 that either. So I wanted to commend you for having 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.080 that level of foresight insight every kind of site. Thanks 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:10.400 and for um suggesting we do this. Thanks having said that, 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.040 if you're a parent, if you're a younger listener, maybe 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.680 should ask your parents. We're gonna be very mature about this, 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.240 but it's not gonna be funny. But if if you uh, 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.360 if you don't think you want your kid listening to 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.040 uh anything about orgasms, then switch it off. Hey man, 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.919 you're the parent, we're not. It's up to you to 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.120 decide when you want your kid. Personally, I went to 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.720 sex ed when I was either the fifth or sixth grade, 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:37.480 So I learned about this stuff when I was like 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.160 from a teacher. I was like seventh or eight, Really 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.080 I was younger. Yeah, yeah, well you're you're very experienced. 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.320 I remember one very funny thing that happened. I can't 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.560 say it. I wish I could. Oh yeah, yeah, one 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.840 kid in my class, I remember his name even It 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.800 was he asked a very funny question that he wouldn't 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.760 meaning to be funny. And but now that I'm older 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.920 looking back, he was asking a legit question and it was. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.240 It was funny. Yeah. Um, that was a great story. 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.400 My imagination is running wild right now. All right, let's 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.280 get to this, chuck, Yeah, let's this is a really 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.320 this is a bang up way to start a podcast. 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.760 Like what happens in the brain during an orgasm. Defining 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:24.040 orgasm from the Oxford English Dictionary. It's dry, it's stayed, 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.880 it's like clinical, it's perfect. It was perfect. So let's 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:32.240 do that the first one. There a sudden movement, spasm, contraction, 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:37.920 or convulsion, a surge of sexual excitement. That's pretty much 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.280 on the on the head there, right, Miriam Webster. Explosive 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:45.279 discharge of neuromuscular tension at the height of sexual arousal, 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.440 usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen in the mail 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.040 and by vaginal contractions in the female. And then famous 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:59.800 smut peddler dr Alfred Kinsey. I'm sorry sex researcher. Researcher 0:04:59.880 --> 0:05:01.919 l for Kinsey. What was the name of the movie 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.320 that Ray Finds played him in? Was it just Kinsey? 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:09.760 It was Kinsey and it was Liam Neeson. Oh yeah, right, 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:14.159 Finds Liam Um he called an orgasm can be likened 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.880 to the crescendo or climax and sudden stillness achieved by 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.760 an orchestra of human emotions. Also, it could be compared 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.080 to an explosion of tensions or to sneezing, which Shane 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.000 of Freeman, who wrote this article, took issue with. That's 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.960 because it's not true. That's all myth, like if you 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.640 sneeze five times, it's like an orgasm, or you'll have 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:38.960 an orgasm. I don't think that's at all what he 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.360 was saying. Well, no, but that is an a sense 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.240 of tension and then really immediate relief that washes over 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:47.720 your body following like a heavy sneeze. I think that's 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:49.719 what he was saying. Yeah, but there's an urban myth 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:51.760 that if you sneeze like five or seven times in 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.240 a row. I don't think Kinsey Dalton urban myths. That 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.720 was a scientist and saying since then, so the point 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.960 of all this is that the orgasm, wow, it it 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.000 is this um sensation that washes over your body. It's 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.800 an explosion of tensions. It's like sneezing. Uh. It's accompanied 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:13.520 by ejaculation and men um. There's all these physiological experience 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.159 is going on, but all of it is centered in 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.520 the brain. The point is the orgasm takes place in 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.600 the brain, and thanks to the Wonder Machine, we now 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.719 know pretty much what's going on in the brain. We 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.720 don't we don't fully understand orgasms, but we have a 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.400 much clearer picture than we did even ten years ago, 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.480 twenty years ago. Did you ever hear the Billy Connolly, 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.920 you know, the comedian his uh, He had one bit 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:43.159 where he talked about when he learned first learning of 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.800 an orgasm, when he was like, you know, twelve years old, 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:47.840 like some older friend of his or his brother or 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.120 cousin taught him like how to achieve it and what 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.080 it was. And he's like, you know, I did it 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:53.559 and it was the best thing ever. And he said, 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:55.080 and then he came back to me the next day 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.200 and it was like, you only get one thousand of those. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:00.520 He was like, the next week, I had used them 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:05.120 all up. Well, I don't know if it was a thousand, 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:06.800 then I don't even know if it's gonna make it 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:08.880 on the air. We'll find out. So let's start clean. 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.640 So um, okay, so we have let's let's talk about 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:18.640 where all this starts takes place. Orgasms begin in the 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.440 genitalia and they end in the brain, Yeah, pretty much, 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.320 that's it. Or they begin in the genitalia, go to 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:29.600 the brain and then come back to the genitalia maybe, 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:31.880 or they begin in the brain and then go to 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:33.680 the genitalia and then back to the brain. We're gonna 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:35.560 get to the bottom of this. But essentially there's a 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.760 lot of nerves involved in this, and there's um, you know, 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.320 you're not going to be surprised to find that the genitalia, 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:47.520 both male and female, are extremely sensitive nerve wise. Apparently 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.760 the clitteress um has about eight thousand nerve endings just 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:57.480 in itself. Uh. Comparatively speaking, the penis, a circumcised penis 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.480 is I understand it has about four thousand endings and 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:04.160 the whole thing that glands. Oh really yes, But and 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.160 I didn't see this substantiated anywhere, but an uncircumcised penis 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.520 supposedly has like twenty five thousand nerve endings in it. 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.160 That's all propaganda. Is that brought to you by the 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.760 Circumcision Society or the Anti circumcision was It was on 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.720 one of those sites. And also that reminds me go 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.000 listen to the circumcision podcast. That was a good one. 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.080 Oh yeah, did you just want to remind yourself that 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.000 we can cover these things without laughing? No? I just 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:31.880 remember that we did circumcision, and then I thought you 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:33.880 were just like, I gotta, I gotta do this. I 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:35.840 gotta be able to say the word penis without laughing. 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:40.079 Penis glands. All right? Uh so what happens is you 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.079 got all these nerve endings um during intercourse and that 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.240 climax that will be UM messages sent through these large 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:50.480 nerves that run up your spinal cord except for the 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.559 vagus nerve, which will is very important that we mentioned 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:57.439 that very bypasses the spinal cord uh and to the 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:02.040 brain and tells the brain, hey, this is great, this 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.480 feels awesome. You want to you want to do this again? Right? 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:10.480 And there's a different bundles are I guess stimulated in 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.880 different areas, right, Yeah. So you've got like the hypogastric 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.600 nerve um, which is located in the uterus and cervics 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.040 and women, and in the prostrate in men. So if 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:24.960 you tickle these areas you can conceivably achieve orgasm through 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.959 the hypogastric nerve. There's the pelvic nerve transmits from the 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:32.319 vagina and cervix and women obviously, and from the rectum 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.160 of both sexes. Yeah, there's some overlap here. Uh, you 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:40.880 go ahead and say that next one, Uh, the pedundle nerve. Yeah, 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:44.400 that's pudendale or pudundle. I'm not sure which or pudundle, 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.920 but either way, it's pu d E N d A L. Right, 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.400 that's the clitterest in women and the scrotum and penis 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.120 and men. So that's like kind of the that's the 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:59.880 well established, long understood bundle of nerves, is it. Yeah, 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.560 because the whole the whole concept that a woman can 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.439 even have an orgasm is pretty recent. It's pretty new, 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.839 like the last century. Yeah, as far as science goes. 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.079 You go to Europe and asked some lady a hundred 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.079 years ago, two hundred years she's gonna be like, what 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.920 are you stupid? Yes, watch this they're like, oh, that's 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:24.720 what that's called. We thought you just had the humors, right, Uh. 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:26.960 And then you've got the vegas nerve, which we uh 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.400 said bypasses the spinal cord. It transmits from the cervix, 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.720 uterus and vagina and of the nerve fibers or sensory 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:38.400 in the vegas nerve. So the vegas nerve is the 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.400 money nerve um and it controls more than just orgasms. Apparently, 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:43.480 if you have vegas nerve damage, you choke when you 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.120 try to swallow liquids. We talked about that and something 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.520 we've said vegas before, and it had to do with choking. 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:56.480 I'll bet you it was either competitive eating or sword swallowing. 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:59.959 Was the sword swallowing. Okay, So the vegas nerve is 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.400 involved in swallowing as well as in umh orgasm. And 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.880 I could only find obviously then if it's involved in swallowing, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.440 it's in men and women. But I could only find 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.640 reference to the vegas nerve and orgasms in relation to 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.880 female orgasms. But we'll get to that later. And the 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.520 vegas nerves though, also, like you said, that's a pretty 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.200 important nerve and it's very only recently discovered as far 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.760 as orgasms go. But the big key to it is 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.719 that it bypasses the spinal cord and goes straight to 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:34.160 the brain, which is really really good news for a 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:39.160 certain subset of the human population. Chuck a k A. Paraplegics, 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:43.440 people who have suffered catastrophic spinal injuries, even people whose 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.640 spines have been interrupted. Like their spines, their spinal cords 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.359 are no longer connected top and bottom, they're totally paralyzed. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:57.160 They can still um come to climax, which is new 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.360 because that was I mean wherever they said, you know, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.360 those days are over for you pretty much. But thank 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:10.559 you Dr Barry Kamiseruk St. Kamiseruk, who we should just 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.080 call this guy Dr Oh because he is the as 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.640 far as I can sell, the pre eminent orgasm scientists. 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:21.400 He and Whipple are he and Dr Whipple Beverly Beverly, 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.120 That's that's what the paraplegic people call her. Of course 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.680 they do. Uh. They are at Rutger's at rat gizz 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.840 Go Scarlet Knights, and they did some tests on women 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.800 in two thousand four who had severed spinal cords, and 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.640 they found that they could feel stimulation in their cervits, 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.000 they could reach orgasm, and they did the m r 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:46.120 I and said, hey, it looks like this thing is bypassing. Yeah, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.360 they're saying this is real because the the m r 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:51.719 I machine lit up like it's supposed to write, and 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.199 like you said that, they showed that the areas of 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.880 the brain that respond to the vegas nerve we're lighting 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.880 up especially, and they're like, oh, it's the vegas nerve, 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.839 which is I mean, we're not getting around. That is 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:08.960 great news because that's one of the most upsetting parts 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.760 I would imagine of spinal injury is to say goodbye 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:13.679 to that part of your life, you know, to lose 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.400 your sexuality like that. One of my um good friends 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.440 dated a girl who was paralyzed from the waist down 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.760 and she was able to, um, I have an orgasm, 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.480 Thank you vegas nerve. Yeah, the vegas nerves basically proof 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:32.439 that women are God's favorite. Oh yeah, no, actually, we'll 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.520 see that's quite the opposite. That's right. I mean, the 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.120 vegas nerves, it's it's pretty great for women, but overall, 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:44.839 dumb lumbering men have it away better, as we'll see. Okay, 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.160 so let's talk about the brain let's talk about the 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:19.000 pleasure center a k a. Reward circuit. This is a 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.920 pretty new Like the nineteen fifties is when they first 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.360 kind of discovered this, and it it seems like we 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.520 talked about this too. They did experiments on rats. They 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.480 basically hooked them up in the skinner box and said, hey, 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.840 if you go push this button, you're gonna get rewarded 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:38.280 in a very pleasurable way in your brain. It was 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.120 like cocaine or something, wasn't it. I think so? And 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:44.680 they they found out that the rats really loved it, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.400 to the tune of about seven button pushes an hour, 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.080 and they didn't eat anymore, didn't want water anymore, just 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.480 there they just lay there and push this button. And 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.680 it wasn't cocaine. They had electro's implanted in the brain's rewards, 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.400 so it was going into stimulating everything. Oh but I 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.680 think it had to do with a study on drugs 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.440 because the reward center, like sexual arousal and the high 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.520 from drugs is what a lot of it's going on there. Well, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.320 not only that, eating, laughing, hanging out with other people, 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.840 basically anything that ensures our survival as a species or 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:20.200 as an individual. UM the reward center has something to 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:21.800 do with it. And the whole point of the reward 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:26.000 center is we get this release of dopamine, this pleasurable um, 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.520 this pleasurable chemical um that teaches us, Wow, this feels 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:32.880 really good. I want to do that again so I 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:37.560 will survive. These rats died of exhaustion. Though. Yeah, exac's 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.960 so crazy, but that's where they discovered it in the fifties. 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.920 And um, if we're gonna talk about the pleasure center, 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.440 and we should mention a few specific areas, like the 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:48.480 amygdala right regulates your emotions, and we talked about the 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:50.320 brain a lot, so this is sort of rehashed. This 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:52.240 is kind of like up there with fight or Flight, 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.280 Like we talked about the reward circuit quite a bit. 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.280 We do yeah because we like it. Well, it's a 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:58.200 great circuit. I wish I had that button. I'd be 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:00.680 pushing it seven hundred times an hour. Have to come 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:05.560 along and be like, you need to stop the nucleus accumbents, 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:07.800 which I don't think we've ever mentioned on the show. 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.760 I think we have we have that controls the release 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.120 of dopamine. It's part of the limbic system, and this 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.520 plays a really big role in sexual arousal and like 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:21.360 the high you feel from from certain drugs. The v 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.360 t A or the ventral tegmental area that actually releases 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:30.200 the dopamine. It takes its orders from the nucleus acumbens acumbins, 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:33.880 the cerebellum controls your muscle function. Muscles are very important 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.320 uh in an orgasm, and the pituitary gland. Here's this 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.560 is a big one because it's not just dopamine, this 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:44.080 pleasure that you sense, like you you just you know, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.360 it's not just pleasure. There's other stuff going on, Like 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.960 there's tristesse crying after sex, Like that's not just pleasure. 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.560 That's you're overwhelmed with emotions sometimes and that is thanks 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.960 to our friend the pituitary gland, which releases beta endorphins 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:03.720 that decreased pain, oxytocin which increased feelings of trust, vast 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.000 oppressing which increases bonding UM and a lot of these 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.760 same hormones and chemicals are released UM when you give birth, 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.240 when a woman gives birth as well, which apparently forms 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.880 bonds between mother and child. And also UM these things 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.960 are released I think, like oxytocin is a lactation chemical 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.240 as well, yeah, so both mother and child during breastfeeding, 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.680 UM bond have Like basically, are you overwhelmed with the 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.080 sense of like, I really like you and I get 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.840 this sense you like me too, so let's hang out. Yeah. 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.000 Oxytocin is called the hormone of love and actually means 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:43.280 quick birth in Greek. And not only is it released 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:47.720 during childbirth, but it sort of facilitates childbirth and um 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.639 nipple stimulation. It is released and that's what makes you 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.840 like date, which is pretty cool and calmness. It reduces 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.920 your anxiety, makes you calm. So oxytocin up with oxytocin. Yeah, 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:05.120 Investip pressing too has similar effects as well. So you've 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.719 got all these chemicals flooding your body, You've got your 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:16.320 reward circuit going. Yeah, and um, this is the orgasm basically, 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.160 especially the female orgasm. We should say, like the male 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:24.720 orgasm includes ejaculation, and it's been long understood what's going 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.399 on there, right, But like it's pretty much an A 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.280 to B relationship. Yeah. But like I said, like it 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:33.840 was pretty recent, like the middle of last century that 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:37.359 people that science came to really say like, okay, all right, 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.880 so this is real. Women are just trying to get 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.119 on board here, like they they really are experiencing something. 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:46.800 And then in the late nineties and um, mid two thousand's, 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.800 a group of Dutch researchers said, we're going to take 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.520 this mri I. We're gonna stick people in this mri I. 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:55.560 We're going to bring them to orgasm and then we're 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.800 gonna watch what goes on in their brains. Yeah. Well, 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.680 first they use the pet scan. Okay, right, I'm sorry. 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.800 And actually, since you mentioned men, you told me in 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.680 another email said this article is sexist because it only 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.600 talks about women almost and I look that up. Apparently 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.640 it's because the men's orgasm is so short it's hard 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.760 to study it. Okay, so it's like boom, it's over, 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.720 whereas a woman can have a prolonged orgasm, much easier 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:26.760 to study that. All right, Um, to pet scan, so 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:28.720 the pets can. But think about this is like the 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:32.359 swing in his study. It's like King Kazy you know, 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:37.000 um this is uh. These these test subjects were brought 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.399 to orgasm the pet they were, their brains were watched 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.800 with pet scans later on MRI s and what the 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:48.360 Dutch researchers found was that there really aren't that many 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.600 differences in the brains between men and women as far 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.520 as the pleasure circuit goes. They saw all the stuff 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.840 they expected to see. Um, apparently, the the brain if 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:02.200 you take a snapshot of maybe the peak of it 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.240 during orgasm or peak orgasm, and you compared it to 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.679 a snapshot of the peak of a heroin dose, Uh, 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.280 it looks the same, one of the Dutch researchers said. 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:18.200 But there are differences between men's orgasms and women's orgasms 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.200 as far as brain regions are concerned. And it's not 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:22.840 really surprising what they found when you hear it. It's 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.440 kind of intuitive, you know. Well. The other thing that 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:27.719 they found was the same, though, was that the orbital 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.240 orbital frontal cortex shut down for both. And that is 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.679 the where you the seat of reason and behavioral control 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.320 in your brain. So it's no surprise that that thing 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:40.879 shuts down for both of us. You just completely lose control. 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:45.800 You're enthralled by your orgasm. So the differences that you 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:50.600 mentioned when a woman has sex, the I had this 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:55.919 so right earlier. Peria caductile gray p G is activated 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.200 and uh, it saysn't here it controls fight or flight. 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.879 I got more that it provokes your defense responses and 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:06.919 it's not necessarily controlling fightre flight. You know, is that right? 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.720 Is it activating and or stimulating it? I just said 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.560 what I saw said it provokes your defense responses, which 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.480 is interesting. Okay, Well, I mean you can say defense responses, 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:19.080 fight or flight. Yeah, let's she was part of it 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.399 at least. Uh. The woman's brains show decreased activity in 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.159 the migla and hippocampus. This one made sense to me. 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.400 Deals with fear anxiety. So fear and anxiety are out 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:30.520 the door all of a sudden. Yeah, which makes sense 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.760 because for a woman to have and enjoy sex, and 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.560 it takes um uh just physically speaking, it takes far 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.480 more trust than it does for a man. Yeah. And 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:45.040 emotionally right, you need to be relaxed exactly general. Uh. 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.200 And then here was one that I thought was kind 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.880 of interesting. UM. The part of the cortex associated with pain, 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:55.399 the insular cortex, which UM is used to judge, Like them, 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:58.760 the ferocity basically of pain, like just how bad pain 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:03.399 is is active faded, So it's basically scanning, looking looking 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.040 out for pain or judging the experience based on partially 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.800 through the lens of pain. I think everyone's been there, 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:13.720 whether it's like tickling or anything. We're like, oh, I 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:15.240 hate that, I hate that, but I love that. I 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:19.760 love that. Very fine line. Sometimes there's a very egalitarian 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:24.680 interpretation checkers, thank you. Um faking an orgasm. Not surprisingly, 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:26.760 of course, it doesn't use the same part of the brain. 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:30.400 There's really bears almost no resemblance whatsoever. I didn't even 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.879 think that should have been included. I didn't either, but 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:36.480 I was mad in Shane of Freeman for being sexist 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.119 at the time when I read that. Now that I 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:41.040 look back on it, I still don't think it should 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:45.159 have been included. That's right, um, so, Chuck. We've been 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:49.600 giving all of the kudos and attention to people who 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:53.920 have orgasms, no problem, right, mm hmm. There are people 0:22:53.960 --> 0:23:00.000 out there who, um are who who can't have orgasms, 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:05.080 and yes, they have an orgasmia, which is an inability 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:09.080 to achieve an orgasm. And one of the big culprits 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:16.040 are s sr eyes serotonin as something reuptake inhibitor. What 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:20.639 was the other s? I can't ever Yes, selector serotonin 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:24.240 reuptake inhibitor, which keeps serotonin in your synapse is longer, 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.440 so you cannot be depressed. The problem is it decreases 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:30.520 the production the natural production of dopamine in your brain, 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:34.680 and dopamine obviously is how we learn to enjoy and 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:41.040 go do something like achieving an orgasm again. So fortunately, 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:43.880 once people wean themselves off of S. S R EYES 0:23:44.160 --> 0:23:48.159 or start taking other drugs that increased dopamine production, usually 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:53.479 that an orgasmia goes away. Usually not all the time, sadly, 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.040 a very small percentage. I didn't get a number, but 0:23:56.520 --> 0:24:01.000 I did see that it was uncommon, thankfully. Uh post 0:24:01.240 --> 0:24:03.960