A Map of Sexual Stimulation in the Female Brain

[RainDog]

thought I'd try to post some good news...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20770-sex-on-the-brain-what-turns-women-on-mapped-out.html

The precise locations that correspond to the vagina, cervix and female nipples on the brain's sensory cortex have been mapped for the first time, proving that vaginal stimulation activates different brain regions to stimulation of the clitoris. The study also found a direct link between the nipples and the genitals, which may explain why some women can orgasm through nipple stimulation alone. The discoveries could ultimately help women who have suffered nerve damage in childbirth or disease.

"This is hard proof that there is a big difference between stimulating those different regions," says Stuart Brody of the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, UK, one of the researchers in the study.

Some have argued that women who derive pleasure from vaginal stimulation do so because their clitoris is being indirectly stimulated, but the current findings contradict this. "They support the reports of women that they experience orgasm from various forms of stimulation," says Beverly Whipple, also of Rutgers University, who was not involved in the current study.

Komisaruk also checked what happened when women's nipples were stimulated, and was surprised to find that in addition to the chest area of the cortex lighting up, the genital area was also activated. "When I tell my male neuroscientist colleagues about this, they say: 'Wow, that's an exception to the classical homunculus,'" he says. "But when I tell the women they say: 'Well, yeah?'" It may help explain why a lot of women claim that nipple stimulation is erotic, he adds.

(the classical homunculus demonstrates that the clitoris and the penis show the same sensory responses in the region of the brain.)

so, Freud was wrong on this one, big time. but he seemed to be wrong about women most of the time... he was a product of his time....in the meantime, in between time...

[roody]

1. If you have a muscle spasm anywhere else,

it doesn't feel so good.

[lbrtbell]

2. Freud was an idiot

How much longer before science proves every one of his insane, coke-fueled theories wrong?

[RainDog]

3. LOL. PZ Myers covered this at Pharyngula

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/08/how_am_i_going_to_fit_an_mri_i.php

"Another cute feature: look in the medial longitudinal fissure. You see the homunculus's toes, and right down there, located beyond the toes, is where the genital sensory area is located. Poke at that with an electrode and…we're talking happy time at the Mad Scientists' convention. But notice, though, that in the diagram of the homunculus, the poor creature's genitals are drawn, and they're male. It's a bit sexist, don't you think?

This bias has now been corrected.

'...a team led by Lars Michels at University Children's Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, used functional magnetic resonance imaging to confirm that the position of the clitoris on the homunculus was in approximately the same position as the penis in men. Barry Komisaruk at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, and his colleagues have now used the same method to map the position of the clitoris, vagina and cervix on the sensory cortex as women stimulated themselves.'

I read these things, and I think to myself that I really went into the wrong research field. Oh, well."

[sofa king]

4. Heh, that squares well with my own theories....

For a very long time now, I've been working a theory one might call "stacked stimulation." Going after all those stimuli areas all at once is apparently overwhelming and uncomfortable for most, but if one carefully attends to each of those areas with steadily increasing vigor, the results are often... highly rewarding.