Editing Orgasm (section)

=== Brain ===

There have been very few studies correlating orgasm and brain activity in real time. One study examined 12 healthy women using a [[positron emission tomography]] (PET) scanner while they were being stimulated by their partners. Brain changes were observed and compared between states of rest, sexual stimulation, faked orgasm, and actual orgasm. Differences were reported in the brains of men and women during stimulation. Changes in brain activity were observed in both sexes, as regions associated with behavioral control, fear, and anxiety shut down. Regarding these, [[Gert Holstege]] said in an interview with ''[[The Times]]'', "What this means is that deactivation, letting go of all fear and anxiety, might be the most important thing, even necessary, to have an orgasm."<ref>{{Cite news |first = Mark |last = Henderson |title = Women fall into 'trance' during orgasm |date = June 20, 2005 |url = https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/women-fall-into-trance-during-orgasm-q2vw29lpl0s |work = [[The Times]] |access-date = December 8, 2011 |location = London |archive-date = January 2, 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170102070253/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/article1964119.ece |url-status = live }}</ref>

While stroking the clitoris, the parts of the female brain responsible for processing fear, anxiety, and behavioral control start to diminish in activity. This reaches a peak at orgasm when the female brain's emotion centers are effectively closed down to produce an almost trance-like state. Holstege is quoted as saying, at the 2005 meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Development: "At the moment of orgasm, women do not have any emotional feelings."<ref>{{Cite news |first = Martin |last = Portner |title = The Orgasmic Mind: The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure |date = May 15, 2008 |url = http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-orgasmic-mind |work = Scientific American |access-date = July 7, 2009 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131102222534/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-orgasmic-mind |archive-date = November 2, 2013 |df = mdy-all }}</ref> A subsequent report by Rudie Kortekaas, et al. states, "Gender commonalities were most evident during orgasm... From these results, we conclude that during the sexual act, differential brain responses across genders are principally related to the stimulatory (plateau) phase and not to the orgasmic phase itself."<ref name="Georgiadis" /> Research has shown that as in women, the emotional centers of a man's brain also become deactivated during orgasm but to a lesser extent than in women. Brain scans of both sexes have shown that the [[pleasure center]]s of a man's brain show more intense activity than in women during orgasm.<ref>''The Scientific American Book of Love, Sex, and the Brain: The Neuroscience of How, When, Why, and Who we love'', Judith Horstman (2011)</ref> Male and female brains demonstrate similar changes during orgasm, with brain activity scans showing a temporary decrease in the [[metabolism|metabolic]] activity of large parts of the [[cerebral cortex]] with normal or increased metabolic activity in the limbic areas of the brain.<ref name="Georgiadis" />

[[EEG]] tracings from volunteers during orgasm were first obtained by Mosovich and Tallaferro in 1954,<ref>{{cite journal |date = 1954 |title = Studies on EEG and sex function orgasm |journal = [[The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry|Diseases of the nervous system]] |volume = 15 |issue = 7 |pages = 218–20 |last1 = Mosovich |first1 = A. |last2 = Tallaferro |first2 = A. |pmid = 13182975 }}</ref> who recorded EEG changes resembling [[petit mal]] or the clonic phase of a [[grand mal]] seizure. Further studies in this direction were carried out by Sem-Jacobsen (1968), Heath (1972), Cohen et al. (1976),<ref>{{cite journal |date = May 1976 |title = Electroencephalographic laterality changes during human sexual orgasm |journal = [[Archives of Sexual Behavior]] |volume = 5 |issue = 3 |quote = Left and right parietal EEGs were recorded while seven subjects experienced sexual climax through self-stimulation |pmid = 952604 |doi = 10.1007/BF01541370 |last1 = Cohen |first1 = Harvey D. |last2 = Rosen |first2 = Raymond C. |last3 = Goldstein |first3 = Leonide |pages = 189–99 |s2cid = 23267494 }}</ref> and others.<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Niedermeyer |first1 = Ernst |first2 = Fernando Lopes da |last2 = Silva |title = Electroencephalography: Basic Principles, Clinical Applications, and Related Fields |edition = 5 |date = 2012 |publisher = [[Lippincott Williams & Wilkins]] |isbn = 978-1-4698-0175-9 |page = 183 |chapter = Polarity and Field Determination |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OBCpFaNpm9kC&pg=PA161 |access-date = February 1, 2016 |archive-date = February 27, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230227055148/https://books.google.com/books?id=OBCpFaNpm9kC&pg=PA161 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last = Bancroft |first = John |title = Human Sexuality And Its Problems |edition = 3 |date = 2009 |publisher = [[Elsevier Health Sciences]] |isbn = 978-0-443-05161-6 |page = 88 |chapter = Sexual arousal and response the psychosomatic circle |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bI-Jau14aLAC&pg=PA55 |access-date = February 1, 2016 |archive-date = February 27, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230227055149/https://books.google.com/books?id=bI-Jau14aLAC&pg=PA55 |url-status = live }}</ref> Sarrel et al. reported a similar observation in 1977. These reports continue to be cited.<ref>As examples, take:
*{{in lang|pl}} [[Kazimierz Imieliński]]. Zarys seksuologii i seksiatrii. [[Warsaw]] 1986, PZWL, {{ISBN|83-200-1047-0}} See also in the following Russian translation: Имелинский К.: Сексология и сексопатология (Sexology a. Sexopathology). [[Moscow]]: Медицина, 1986. — С. 57. (Chapter "Nervous system")
*{{in lang|ru}} [[Abram Svyadoshch]]. Женская сексопатология (Female sexopathology). — 3-е изд., перераб. и доп. — [[Moscow|Москва]]: Медицина, 1988. — С. 17 (the chapter entitled "Orgasm"). {{ISBN|5-225-00188-2}}
*{{in lang|ru}} [[Lev Shcheglov]]. Сексология. Врачу и пациенту. — [[Saint Petersburg]]: Олма-Пресс. — С. 81–82 (#4.3 "The main physiological processes ensuring sex function in humans"). {{ISBN|5-7654-1068-5}}, {{ISBN|5-224-02421-8}}</ref> Unlike them, Craber et al. (1985) failed to find any distinctive EEG changes in four men during masturbation and ejaculation; the authors concluded that the case for the existence of EEG changes specifically related to sexual arousal and orgasm remained unproven.<ref>{{cite journal |date = December 1985 |title = EEG during masturbation and ejaculation |journal = [[Archives of Sexual Behavior]] |volume = 14 |issue = 6 |quote = Examination of the literature shows little agreement among reported results of studies of EEG changes during orgasm. |pmid = 4084049 |last1 = Graber |first1 = B |last2 = Rohrbaugh |first2 = JW |last3 = Newlin |first3 = DB |last4 = Varner |first4 = JL |last5 = Ellingson |first5 = RJ |pages = 491–503 |doi = 10.1007/BF01541750 |s2cid = 31588348 }}</ref> So disagreement arises as to whether the experiment conducted by Mosovich and Tallaferro casts a new light on the nature of orgasm. In some recent studies, authors tend to adopt the opposite point of view that there are no remarkable EEG changes during ejaculation in humans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Holstege |first1 = Gert |last2 = Georgiadis |first2 = Janniko R. |last3 = Paans |first3 = Anne M. J. |last4 = Meiners |first4 = Linda C. |last5 = Graaf |first5 = Ferdinand H. C. E. van der |last6 = Reinders |first6 = A. A. T. Simone |date = October 8, 2003 |title = Brain Activation during Human Male Ejaculation |journal = [[The Journal of Neuroscience]] |volume = 23 |issue = 27 |page = 9188 |format = PDF, HTML |doi = 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.23-27-09185.2003 |pmid = 14534252 |pmc = 6740826 |url = http://www.jneurosci.org/content/23/27/9185.full.pdf+html |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160101093636/http://www.jneurosci.org/content/23/27/9185.full.pdf%2Bhtml |archive-date = January 1, 2016 |df = mdy-all |doi-access = free }}</ref>