Where in the Brain is a Woman's Sexual Response? Laboratory Studies Including Brain Imaging During Orgasm.

Where in the Brain is a Woman's Sexual Response? Laboratory Studies Including Brain Imaging During Orgasm, Beverly Whipple, The State University of New Jersey; Barry R. Komisaruk, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH

Women report pleasurable responses, peak sexual experiences, and orgasm from a variety of stimuli. Physiological studies from our laboratory have validated the reports of women that they do not fit into a pattern of only one way to respond sexually. Data from orgasmic responses of women using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and positron emission tomography (PET) with 015-labeled water will be given. During these studies, activity in the brain was recorded during vaginocervical self-stimulation (VSS) in women with complete spinal cord injury (SCI) at or above T 10 (i.e., at or above the level of entry into the spinal cord of known genitospinal nerves, pelvic, pudendal, and hypogastric) and in women without spinal cord injury. Activation of the region of Nucleus Tractus Solitarii (NTS), the sensory nucleus of the vagus nerve was observed, supporting our hypothesis that the vagus nerve provides a spinal cord bypass pathway for vaginocervical sensation. During orgasm, compared to pre-orgasm, high levels of activity were observed in the regions of the following: hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), midbrain central gray, amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate, frontal, parietal, temporal, and insular cortices, anterior basal ganglia, and cerebellum. We also present fMRI data from imagery-induced orgasm and suggest application of these data for therapy.