When a woman reaches sexual climax, the brain’s reward circuits along with rational thought processes become inundated with electrical activity.
Researchers conducted the first film to illustrate what occurs within a woman’s brain as she nears and ultimately experiences orgasm, capturing the chain of events initiated by sexual arousal, which peaks with the involvement of 30 different parts of the brain.
Women not only enjoy longer and more profound orgasms than men, but the intensity of these experiences so overwhelms the nervous system that it results in a temporary insensitivity to pain, as highlighted in the film.
“The response to orgasm in women is remarkably extensive throughout both the brain and body,” stated Barry Komisaruk, a psychology professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who led the research.
Professor Komisaruk and his team intended to present their film approximately six years ago at a conference held by the US Society for Neuroscience.
In their study, they asked 16 women to “self-stimulate” until achieving orgasm while lying beneath a blanket in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Despite the medical setting, all participants successfully reached their goal, with most doing so in under five minutes, though a few required as long as 20 minutes.
The researchers utilized the imaging device to monitor which areas of the brain exhibited 
activity at every stage. The film presents images of the women’s brains taken every two seconds, showing the spikes in electrical activity as orgasm affects different combinations of brain regions sequentially. This activity floods not only the brain’s “reward circuits” but also the sections linked to rational thought.
The activation pattern appeared consistent among all observed women. This consistency may assist researchers in creating a standard depiction of a typical orgasm, which could potentially aid those experiencing sexual dysfunction. Approximately one in seven women never reaches orgasm.
Additional research has explored the brain activity in men during orgasm. A study at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands demonstrated “extraordinary activation of the ventral tegmental area,” which is another component of the brain’s reward circuitry.
Initial findings indicate that while the effects are similar, they are less intense and shorter in duration for men compared to the sensations experienced by most women.
“In one of our experiments, we instructed women to self-stimulate and raise their hands each time they experienced an orgasm. Several women raised their hands multiple times during a single session, often just seconds apart,” noted Professor Komisaruk. “The evidence suggests that women tend to have longer orgasms and can potentially experience multiple orgasms.”
by Susan Floyd
