December 27, 2011 • 38 mins
Chuck and Josh test the limits of their decorum as they explore the physiology of an orgasm. Learn all about this inexplicably taboo subject (including how even women who are paralyzed can experience orgasms) in this episode of Stuff You Should Know.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is always this
Charles W Chuck Bryant. He's got a new haircut. Everybody
(00:22):
looks really good. You can take my word for short,
high and tight. Yeah, high and tight. Makeing stuff you
should know? Chuck out his ears lowered? Have you ever
heard that? And I don't think anyone under seventy has
ever said that? Though, Yeah, well I just had. I
took the cake. Yes, speaking of have you ever heard
(00:43):
of the origin of the word cakewalk? The term cake walk?
I wrote a blog on it. You should check it out.
Very surprising. I'll check it out, very eye opening. Again,
tell us just go to the blog blog. Um, it's
so Chuck. Are you ready? Yes, Chuck, Yes, I want
to commend you. Okay, Um, just a day ago I
(01:08):
woke up, checked my smartphone and found an email and
you said, how about these for stuff you should know?
And one of them was what happens in the brain
during an orgasm? I'm sorry. Last week what happens in
the brain during an orgasm. And I thought, oh, man,
I don't know about that one. Like we've got some
(01:30):
younger listeners, like are we qualified to talk about this stuff?
I got I started sweating. Um, it was just it
was a wreck. It was a terrible way to wake up. Um.
And I emailed you and was like, are you sure?
And you said something that I thought was this is
why I'm commending you. You're like, look, man, we've done
(01:50):
a lot of stuff on like really violent things which
just off the top of my head, shrunken heads are
step by step guide to shrinking heads or check the
cannibalism at the Ripper. Um, and we have we've done
a lot of stuff about violent stuff. And you're like,
and I don't want to just be able to talk
about violent stuff but not be able to talk about sexuality,
(02:11):
like it's bad or worse than violence. I don't want
to play ball with that scene. And that is very
especially in America. It's a scene we just celebrated Thanksgiving.
We're a very puritanical country still. And that's absolutely true.
Like violence is celebrated and okay, sexuality is hidden and
it's not okay. Uh, And yeah, I don't subscribe to
(02:32):
that either. So I wanted to commend you for having
that level of foresight insight every kind of site and
forum suggesting we do this. Thanks for having said that.
If you're a parent, if you're a younger listener, maybe
you should ask your parents. We're gonna be very mature
about this, but it's not gonna be funny. But if
if you uh, if you don't think you want your
(02:53):
kid listening to uh anything about orgasms, then switch it off.
Hey man, you're the parent, we're not. It's up to
you to decide when you want your kid. Personally, I
went to sex ed when I was either the fifth
or sixth grade, so I learned about this stuff when
I was like from a teacher I was like seventh
or eight. Really I was younger. Yeah, yeah, well you're
(03:15):
you're very experienced. I remember one very funny thing that happened.
I can't say it. I wish I could. Oh yeah, yeah,
one kid in my class, I remember his name even
it was he asked a very funny question that he
wouldn't mean it to be funny. And but now that
I'm older, looking back, he was asking a legit question
and it was. It was funny. Yeah. Um, that was
(03:35):
a great story. My imagination is running wild right now.
All right, let's get to this, chuck. Yeah, let's this
is a really this is a bang up way to
start a podcast. Like what happens in the brain during
an orgasm? Defining orgasm from the Oxford English Dictionary. It's dry,
it's stayed, it's like clinical, it's perfect. It was perfect.
(03:59):
So let's do that the first one. There a sudden movement, spasm, contraction,
or convulsion, a surge of sexual excitement. That's pretty much
on the on the head there, right, Miriam Webster. Explosive
discharge of neuromuscular tension at the height of sexual arousal uh,
usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen in the male
(04:21):
and by vaginal contractions in the female. And then famous
smut peddler Dr Alfred Kinsey, I'm sorry, sex researcher. Researcher
Alfred Kinsey. What was the name of the movie that
Ray Finds played him? Was it just Kinsey? It was
Kinsey and it was Liam Neeson. Yeah. Um, he called
(04:44):
an orgasm. It can be likened to the crescendo or
climax and sudden stillness achieved by an orchestra of human emotions. Also,
it could be compared to an explosion of tensions or
to sneezing, which Shane of Freeman, who wrote the this article,
took issue with. That's because it's not true. That's all myth,
(05:05):
like if you sneeze five times it's like an orgasm
where you'll have an orgasm. I don't think that's at
all what he was saying. A sense of tension and
then really immediate relief that washes over your body following
like a heavy sneeze. I think that's what he was saying. Yeah,
but there's an urban myth that if you sneeze like
five or seven times in a row. I don't think
Kinsey Dalton have been myths. That was a scientist I'm
(05:27):
saying since then. So the point of all this is
that the orgasm, while it is this um sensation that
washes over your body, it's an explosion of tensions. It's
like sneezing. Uh, It's accompanied by ejaculation and men um.
There's all these physiological experience is going on, but all
of it is centered in the brain. The point is
(05:49):
the orgasm takes place in the brain. And thanks to
the Wonder Machine, we now know pretty much what's going
on in the brain. We don't we don't fully understand orgasms,
but we have a much clearer picture than we did
even ten years ago, twenty years ago. Did you ever
hear the Billy Connolly, you know, the comedian his uh
(06:11):
He had one bit where he talks about when he
learned first learning of an orgasm, when he was like,
you know, twelve years old, like some older friend of
his or his brother or cousin taught him like how
to achieve it and what it was, and he's like,
you know, I did it, and it was the best
thing ever, And he said, and then he came back
to me the next day and was like, you only
get one thousand of those? He was like, the next
(06:31):
week I had used them all up. Well, I don't
know if it was a thousand, then I don't even
know if this is gonna make it on the air.
I'll find out. So let's start clean. So um, okay,
so we have let's let's talk about where all this
starts takes place. Orgasms begin in the genitalia and they
(06:52):
end in the brain. Yeah, pretty much, that's it. Or
they begin in the genitaliet, go to the brain and
then come back to the genitalia. Maybe, or they begin
in the brain and then go to the genitalia end
them back to the brain. We're gonna get to the
bottom of this. But essentially there's a lot of nerves
involved in this, and there's um you know, you're not
going to be surprised to find that the genitalia, both
(07:14):
male and female, are extremely sensitive nerve wise. Apparently the
clitteress um is has about eight thousand nerve endings just
in itself. Uh, comparatively speaking, the penis circumcised penis is,
I understand it has about four thousand nerve endings and
the whole thing that glands. Oh really yes, but and
(07:36):
I didn't see this substantiated anywhere, but an uncircumcised penis
supposedly has like twenty five thousand nerve endings in it.
That's all propaganda. Is that brought to you by the
Circumcision Society Anti Circumcisi was It was on one of
those sites. And also that reminds me, go listen to
the circumcision podcast. That was a good one. Did you
(07:56):
just want to remind yourself that we can cover these
things without laughing. No, I just remember that we did circumcision,
and then I thought you were just like, I gotta,
I gotta do this. I gotta be able to say
the word penis without laughing. Penis gland. All right. Uh,
so what happens is you got all these nerve endings
UM during intercourse and a climax that will be UM
(08:17):
messages sent through these large nerves that run up your
spinal cord, except for the vagus nerve, which will It
is very important that we mentioned that bypasses the spinal
cord uh and to the brain and tells the brain, Hey,
this is great, this feels awesome. You want to you
wanna do this again. And there's a different bundles there,
(08:41):
I guess, stimulated in different areas, right, Yeah, So you've
got like the hypogastric nerve um, which is located in
the uterus and cervix and women, and in the prostrate
in men. So if you tickle these areas you can
conceivably achieve orgasm through the hypogastric nerve. There's a pelvic
nerve transmits from the vagina and cervix and women obviously,
(09:03):
and from the rectum of both sexes. Yeah, there's some
overlap here. Uh, you go ahead and say that. Next one, Uh,
the pedundele nerve. Yeah, that's pudendale or pudundal I'm not
sure which, or pudundle, but either way it's p U
d E n d A L. Right, that's the clitteress
in women and the scrotum and penis and men. So
(09:24):
that's like kind of the that's the well established, long
understood bundle of nerves, is it. Yeah, because the whole
like the whole concept that a woman can even have
an orgasm is pretty recent. It's pretty new, like the
last century. Yeah, as far as science goes. You go
to Europe and asked some lady a hundred years ago,
(09:45):
two hundred years ago, I's gonna be like, what are
you stupid? Yes, watch this. They're like, oh, that's what
that's called. We thought you just had the humors, right. Uh.
And then you've got the vegas nerve, which we uh said,
by passes the spinal cord. It transmits from the cervix
uterus and vagina and of the nerve fibers or sensory
(10:08):
in the vegas nerve. So the vegas nerve is the
money nerve um and it controls more than just orgasms. Apparently,
if you have vegas nerve damage, you choke when you
try to swallow liquids. We talked about that in something
we've said vegas before, and it had to do with choking.
I'll bet you it was either competitive eating or swords
following Was it sword swallowing? Okay, so the vegas nerve
(10:31):
is involved in swallowing as well as in um uh orgasm.
And I could only find obviously then if it's involved
in swallowing, it's in men and women. But I could
only find reference to the vegas nerve and orgasms in
relation to female orgasms. But we'll get to that later.
And the vegas nerves though, also, like you said, that's
a pretty important nerve and it's very only recently discovered
(10:54):
as far as orgasms go. But the big key to
it is that it by hass as the spinal cord
and go straight to the brain, which is really really
good news for a certain subset of the human population
Chuck a k a. Paraplegics sample who have suffered catastrophic
spinal injuries, even people whose spines have been interrupted like
(11:16):
their spines. Their spinal cords are no longer connected top
and bottom. They're totally paralyzed. They can still um come
to climax, which is new because that was I mean forever.
They said, you know, those days are over for you
pretty much. But thank you Dr Berry Kamiseruk St. Kamiseruk,
(11:40):
who we should just call this guy Dr Oh because
he is the as far as I can sell, the
pre eminent orgasm scientists. He and Whipple are he and
Dr Whipple Beverly Beverly, That's that's what the paraplegic people
call her. Of course they do. Uh. They are at
Rutger's at rat giz goos Arlette nights. And they did
(12:02):
some tests on women in two thousand four who had
severed spinal cords, and they found that they could feel
stimulation in their cervicts. They could reach orgasm, and they
did the m r I and said, hey, it looks
like this thing is bypassing. Yeah, they're saying this is
real because the the m r I machine lit up
like it's supposed to write, and like you said that,
(12:25):
they showed that the areas of the brain that respond
to the vegas nerve we're lighting up especially, and they're like, oh,
it's the vegas nerve, which is I mean, we're not
getting around. That is great news because that's one of
the most upsetting parts I would imagine of spinal injury
is to say goodbye to that part of your life,
you know, to lose your sexuality like that. One of
(12:47):
my um good friends stated a girl who was paralyzed
from the waist down and she was able to um,
I have an orgasm. Thank you, vegas nerve. Yeah, the
vegas nerves basically proof that him in our God's favorite.
Oh yeah, no, actually, we'll see that's quite the opposite.
That's right. I mean the vegas nervous it's it's pretty
(13:09):
great for women, but overall, dumb lumbering men have it
a way better. Yeah, as we'll see. Okay, so let's
talk about the brain. Let's talk about the pleasure center
a k a. Reward circuit. This is a pretty new
Like the nineteen fifties is when they first kind of
discovered this, and it seems like we talked about this too.
(13:31):
They did experiments on rats. They basically hooked them up
in the skinner box and said, hey, if you go
push this button, you're gonna get rewarded in a very
pleasurable way in your brain. It was like cocaine or something,
wasn't it. I think so? And they they found out
that the brats really loved it, to the tune of
about seven button pushes an hour, and they didn't eat anymore,
(13:55):
didn't want water anymore. They just lay there and push
this button. And it was and cocaine. They had electro's
implanted in the brain's rewards, so it was going and
just stimulating everything. No, but I think it had to
do with a study on drugs, because the reward center,
like sexual arousal and the high from drugs, is what
a lot of it's going on there. Well, not only that, eating, laughing,
(14:17):
hanging out with other people, basically anything that ensures our
survival as a species or as an individual. Um, the
reward center has something to do with it. And the
whole point of the reward center is we get this
release of dopamine, this pleasurable um, this pleasurable chemical um
that teaches us, wow, this feels really good. I want
to do that again, so I will survive. These rats
(14:39):
died of exhaustion, though, Yeah, exactly, that's so crazy, but
that's where they discovered it in the fifties. And um,
if we're gonna talk about the pleasure center, and we
should mention a few specific areas, like the amygdala right
regulates your emotions, and we talked about the brain a lot,
so this is sort of rehashed. This is kind of
like up there with fight or flight, Like we talked
about the reward circuit quite a bit. We do because
(15:00):
we like it. Well, it's a great circuit. I wish
I had that button. I'd be pushing it seven hundred
times an hour and I have to come along and
be like, you need to stop. The nucleus accumbents, which
I don't think we've ever mentioned on the show. I
think we have we have that controls the release of dopamine.
It's part of the limbic system and this plays a
really big role in sexual arousal and like the high
(15:23):
you feel from from certain drugs. The v t A
or the ventral tegmental area that actually releases the dopamine,
It takes its orders from the nucleus acumens a cumbins.
The cerebellum controls your muscle function. Muscles are very important,
uh in an orgasm and the pituitary gland. Here's this
is a big one because it's not just dopamine the
(15:45):
pleasure that you've since like you you just you know,
it's not just pleasure. There's other stuff going on, Like
there's tristesse crying after sex, Like that's not just pleasure.
That's you're overwhelmed with emotions sometimes and that is thanks
to our friend the pituitary gland, which releases beta endorphins
that decreased pain, oxytocin, which increased feelings of trust that's oppressing,
(16:09):
which increases bonding UM and a lot of these same
hormones and chemicals are released UM when you give birth,
when a woman gives birth as well, which apparently forms
bonds between mother and child. And also UM these things
are released I think like oxytocin is a lactation chemical
as well, so both mother and child during breastfeeding UM
(16:32):
bond have like basically re overwhelmed with the sense of like,
I really like you, and I get this sense you
like me too, so let's hang out. Yeah. Oxytocin is
called the hormone of love and actually means quick birth
in Greek. And not only is it released during childbirth,
but it sort of facilitates childbirth and um, nipple stimulation,
(16:56):
it is released and that's what makes you lack DA
which is pretty cool and calmness. It reduces your anxiety,
makes you calm. So ocutosin up with oxytocin. Yeah. Investip
pressing too has similar effects as well. So you've got
all these chemicals flooding your body, You've got your reward
circuit going. Yeah, and um, this is the orgasm basically,
(17:21):
especially the female orgasm. We should say, like the male
orgasm includes ejaculation, and it's been long understood what's going
on there, right, But like it's pretty much an A
to B relationship. Yeah. But like I said, like it
was pretty recent, like the middle of last century that
people that science came to really say like, okay, all right,
(17:42):
so this is real. Women are just trying to get
on board here, like they they really are experiencing something.
And then in the late nineties and um, mid two thousands,
a group of Dutch researchers said, we're going to take
this m ri I, We're gonna stick people in this
mri I, We're going to bring them to orgasm and
then we're gonna watch what goes on in their brains. Yeah,
(18:02):
well first they use the PET scan. Okay, you're right.
I'm sorry. And actually, since you mentioned men, you told
me in another email said this article is sexist because
it only talks about women almost and I looked that up.
Apparently it's because the men's orgasm is so short it's
hard to study it. Okay, so it's like boom, it's over,
(18:24):
whereas a woman can have a prolonged orgasm. Much easier
to study that. All right, Um, to pet scan. So
the PET scan. But think about this is like the
swing in his study since like King Kazy, you know, um,
this is uh. These these test subjects were brought to
orgasm that pet they were their brains were watched with
(18:45):
PET scans later on MRI s and what the Dutch
researchers found was that there really aren't that many differences
in the brains between men and women as far as
the pleasure circuit goes. They saw all the stuff they
expected to see. Um. Apparently, the the the brain if
you take a snapshot of maybe the peak of it
(19:07):
during orgasm or peak orgasm, and you compared it to
a snapshot of the peak of a heroin dose. Uh,
it looks the same, one of the Dutch researchers said,
But there are differences between men's orgasms and women's orgasms
as far as brain regions are concerned. And it's not
really surprising what they found when you hear it. It's
(19:28):
kind of intuitive, you know. Well. The other thing that
they found was the same, though, is that the orbital
orbital frontal cortex shut down for both. And that is
the where you the seat of reason and behavioral control
in your brain. So it's no surprise that that thing
shuts down for both of us. You just completely lose control.
You're enthralled by your orgasm. So the differences that you
(19:51):
mentioned when a woman has sex, the I had this
so right earlier period coductile gray PG is activated and
uh it saysn't here controls fight or flight. I got
more that it provokes your defense responses and it's not
necessarily controlling fightre flight. You know? Is that right? Is
(20:12):
it activating and or stimulating it? It just said what
I saw is said it provokes your defense responses, which
is interesting. Okay, Well, I mean you can say defense
responses fight or flight. Yeah, that's true. Was part of
it at least. Uh. The woman's brain showed decreased activity
in the middala and hippocampus. This one made sense to me.
Deals with fear anxiety. So fear and anxiety are out
(20:33):
the door all of a sudden. Yeah, which makes sense
because for a woman to have and enjoy sex, and
it takes um. Just physically speaking, it takes far more
trust than it does for a man, and emotionally, right,
you need to be relaxed general. Uh. And then here
was one that I thought was kind of interesting. UM.
The part of the cortex associated with pain, the insular cortex,
(20:57):
which UM is used to judge like the the ferocity
basically of pain, like just how bad pain is, is activated.
So it's basically scanning, looking looking out for pain, or
judging the experience based on partially through the lens of pain.
I think everyone's been there, whether it's like tickling or anything.
(21:18):
We're like, oh, I hate that, I hate that, but
I love that. I love that. Very fine line. Sometimes
there's a very egalitarian interpretation checkers, thank you. UM. Faking
an orgasm. Not surprisingly, of course, it doesn't use the
same part of the brain. There's really bears almost no
resemblance whatsoever. I didn't even think that should have been included.
I didn't either, but I was mad in shanea Freeman
(21:40):
for being sexist at the time when I read that.
Now that I look back on it, I still don't
think it should have been included. That's right, um so, Chuck.
We've been giving all of the kudos and attention to
people who have orgasms, no problem, right, m hmm. There
are people out there who, um are who who can't
(22:04):
have orgasms, and yes, they have an orgasmia, which is
an inability to achieve an orgasm. And one of the
big culprits are S SR eyes serotonin as something reuptake inhibitor.
What was the other s? I can't Yes, select serotonin
(22:25):
reuptake inhibitor, which keeps serotonin in your synapses longer, so
you cannot be depressed. The problem is it decreases the
production the natural production of dopamine in your brain, and dopamine,
obviously is how we learn to enjoy and go do
something like achieving an orgasm again. So fortunately, once people
(22:47):
wean themselves off of S S R eyes or start
taking other drugs, that increased dopamine production, usually that an
orgasmia goes away, usually not all the time. Sadly a
very small person enage. I didn't get a number, but
I did see that was uncommon, thankfully. Uh post s
s ri I. Sexual dysfunction means after you have weaned
(23:09):
yourself off and you're producing dopamine regularly, you're still not
able to achieve an orgasm. Right. They have no idea
why because they're like, your dopamines working, Like what, what's
your problem? And this is thanks to Dr oh again, right,
I believe, so it's all over this stuff. Uh he um.
That's one of the main reasons he's studying the orgasm.
(23:31):
By the way, it's not just to like like, oh cool,
look at the brain. It's to help people that are
an orgasmic or who suffered from persistent sexual arousal syndrome,
which sounds horrible. Yeah. That means you're always sexually aroused,
but you can't achieve orgasm right right, and like you're
genuinely always sexually aroused. Um. Dr oh uh looked at
(23:54):
women who have p s A s UM and put
them in an mri I and looked at their brains
and their brains are showing like, yeah, I'm turned on
right now. I'm turned on right now for no good reason.
I can't do anything about it. But I'm turned on
right now. And then even if I try to have
an orgasm, I can't. But the science supported it. Yeah, alright, right, right, yeah,
(24:18):
So I mean these people were physically sexually aroused and
they couldn't do anything about it. He figured out that, um,
they can use um like meditation techniques apparently works. Um
basically calming techniques apparently hasn't has an impact on decreasing
the sexual arousal. I think he's still trying to figure
(24:39):
out the an orgasmia part. Josh, did you know that
some people can orgasm from being touched in other parts
of their body other than the genitalium. I did know that,
for instance, the nipples that happened. Sometimes they think that
these sensations are transmitted to the same areas of the
brain as the ones that come from your genitals, and
(25:00):
so it's just the brain saying all right, I'll give
you a little bonus there. You know, it's it's lighting
up the right part of the brain. So here's an orgasm.
Um Apparently also knees knows people. Um, there apparently women
out there who can have orgasms just from imagery alone,
no touching, no touching. Um. And again these people are
(25:24):
in m r s. The brain is lighting up and
they're saying it science supports this woman is actually having
an orgasm from a no touch encounter. The phantom limb
thing is what it really gets me. Yeah, do you
want to talk about that? Yeah? I mean apparently some
people can. Did they do they feel the orgasm in
(25:44):
their phantom limb? Yes? Is that what it's not? It
doesn't generate there. So you know how you have when
you experience an orgasm, chuck, You know how it's concentrated
in your genitalia. Imagine if that sensation we're in your foot,
like that's what felt good, just as easily could right now.
Imagine that your foot have been amputated years before, but
(26:08):
you're still feeling your orgasm in your phantom foot. That's
what they're talking about that. Well, they think what happened
is Um. There's a basically a map of your brain.
The way we interpret it is as a maps called
the cortical homunculous and the cortical homunculous is like, Okay,
this part of the body corresponds to this part of
the brain, like the nerves here correspond here. And apparently
(26:30):
if you suffer an amputation, your brain is like, well,
I need to rewire myself and need to remap a
little bit. So, um, I'm going to assign the sensation
in the foot that's not there any longer to the genitalia,
so the brain can become confused by the genitalia being
stimulated that experience can be felt in the amputated foot,
(26:54):
for example. That's what scientists think right now. You can
also say that they have no idea what's going but
people are reporting having orgasms and phantom limbs. I think
it's my new band name, too, Cortical homunculous. I've got
some breaking news, Josh. This is a surprise for you.
My friend Dr oh is at it again. And this
(27:16):
was just released on the old ap wire last week. No,
they kicked it up a notch and had ladies sit
in the f m R I machine, which is even
kicked up a notch from the regular m R I
And they now have the first movie of the female
(27:37):
brain as it approaches experiences and recovers from an orgasm.
So they put this couple of ladies actually, and one
of them talked about it. She did a little uh,
I think she blocked about it. She said that one
of the problems in doing this, obviously is you have
to not move very much at all because it will
disrupt the data. So they fitted her with a breathable
(27:59):
plastic mesh helmet that was screwed into the bed to
keep her still. And um, how he's got an eyeswight
chut for some reason. And um, they told her to
practice being still while you know, bringing yourself to climax.
So she uh, duct taped a kittie bell from her
(28:22):
cats uh what do you call it? The collar onto
her forehead and for two weeks practice bringing yourself to
climax without ringing that bell. And she said, you know,
I got good, good enough at it to successfully do
this in the experiment, and uh, it was successful. So
you can go on the internet now and look this up,
(28:42):
um and watch this video the animation plays. Um, you
see the activity building up in the Genitalia area of
the century cortex like it should. Then, um, activity is
spreading to the limbic system. Then it spreads to the
limbic system, which is involved in emotion and long term memory.
Then as the orgasm arrives, activity shoots up in two
(29:03):
parts of the brain, the cerebellum in the frontal cortex
that controlled the muscular tension. So all of a sudden,
the muscles like contract really heavily, so that shoots up
during the orgasm um it reaches a peak in the hypothalamus,
and that's when it releases the oxytocin and all that
good stuff and causes the uterus to contract and I'm sorry,
(29:26):
the nucleus acumbens is uh, that's also firing off during
the peak because controlling the release of yeah, and then
afterwards everything like you see, it just goes. You goes
from all colorful back to the cold, dead blackness of
your brain. The Derrito's center starts becoming active. So check.
(29:50):
There's a there's a very big question that we haven't
really answered. We understand why men have orgasms. Why do
women have orgasms evolutionarily? But why? I mean, it doesn't
make any sense. If it's an evolutionary adaptation like it
is for men, then why is it so hard for
(30:11):
some women to have orgasm? You you know, ten of
women will go through their entire lifetimes without ever experience
any or an orgasm. That's a lot. So if it's evolutionary,
that just that completely pulls the rug out of that
whole idea, because then it should be really easy for
women and men. Right, Okay, So one of the ideas
(30:35):
that's long been bandied about is a byproduct theory, like,
you know why men have nipples because women have nipples
all humans, so at some point during gestation or whatever,
we still keep ours even though we don't need them
and don't need nipples. But we're humans and women need nipples,
so it makes sense I don't use mine anymore. Um.
(30:56):
They think that possibly the female orgasm is the same
thing men and women are both humans. Men need to
have orgasms, so women do as byproduct. In this really
weird study that came out last year of twins, um,
they studied same sex twins and opposite sex twins, and
same sex twins had similar orgasm patterns. Right opposite sex twins, who,
(31:20):
if it is just a byproduct, um, should have the
same or similar orgasm patterns. It didn't hold up. So
where does that leave us? Well, we have no ideas.
Con They think that it could possibly be an evolutionary remnant,
like it was uh strategic to our survival at some
point in the distant pass and it's just a relic
that kind of hangs around, which is kind of a
(31:42):
depressing thought because then that means we're watching it as
it's endangered and it's growing extinct, and that's sad, and
I think that it needs to be snatched back from
the grips of natural selection. Well, some things maybe just
shouldn't be studied. Maybe you should just the I don't know,
I'm sure there's women out there saying just put those
(32:03):
studies away. Yeah, let's just look at it as a
big as a big bonus. And that's thanks, big guy.
That's when dr Oe flicks the switch and the disco
ball comes down from the ceiling. So if you want
to know more about orgasms and see some pretty cool
stock images of lit brains and things like that, you
can type in what happens in the brain during an orgasm?
(32:26):
You probably just type in orgasm in the search bart
how stuff works dot com. It will bring up some
interesting cool stuff. Sure, um and uh, I said search bar.
I believe. So that means it's time for a listener
mail Josh. Before we move on, we have to uh
announce I believe, one final time about our contest. That's
(32:47):
the last time because the contest ends December thirty one,
I believe. Right. You have to enter to win, as
they say, yeah, and you have to enter only through Facebook. Yes,
you have to like the house stuff Works dot Com
facebook page, not the stuff you Should Know page. We
and I say this enough yet still people right in
on our stuff you should know well and say where
do you enter how stuffworks dot Com? Like it? You
(33:08):
have to enter a few small details nothing to uh
uh obtrusive? Right, nothing too intrusive? What did I say? Uh?
You have through the end of the year, through December
thirty one to enter. We're gonna announce the winner the
first week of the year. What a great way to
start your year off, exactly like knowing that you're coming
to me. A couple of grand prize is you get
(33:30):
to fly to Atlanta up to five dollars air fair covered, uh,
stay in a hotel covered, get an Amex gift cards
hundred bucks for like um nail clippers because you can't
fly with those. That's right? And uh, if you refer someone.
You can tweet it out or say this is my
Facebook status as I just entered this. If you refer
(33:51):
someone and they win after they entered, then you win
a kindle fire, right, and you don't have to keep
track of that. We have like people who who track
those metrics. There's an algorithm. Yeah, so it's it's it's
a pretty cool contest, pretty straightforward. But we get to
go to lunch. I don't think we said that. You
come to the office, you get a tour, Yeah, we
got we take you to lunch. We take you to lunch.
Yeah with Jerry, Jerry's coming. We're not gonna make you
(34:13):
spend that m X gift card on it. That's for you.
Although if they want to buy me Neil clippers, I'm
not gonna stop. And uh, sorry to those of you
in other countries. I know it's a rub that you
have to be in the United States here, but we
can't win your lotteries or your contest in New Zealand,
so you can't win on ours. It's just the way
contests work. Yes, and uh, just go to the House
(34:35):
Stuff Works Facebook page and I'm sure there'll be some
sort of something up that says Hey, you should enter
this contest. Agreed. Okay, so I think we should get
on with it. That's right, Josh. This is about gene patenting,
I believe. And it's from Jim in New Jersey, Garden State.
(34:56):
I loves your patent podcast. Guys at Dovetail about that
word very nicely with the Tech Stuff patent podcast. Yeah,
that's what he says. I'm of the opinion that if
you construct a new gene, then you can patent it. However,
if you discover a gene already existing in nature, then
I'm not sure that you should be able to patent it.
This is just Jim's opinion. Maybe you can patent the
(35:19):
process of identifying the gene seems reasonable. Maybe you can
patent a specific use of the gene, such as for testing,
which you clearly covered as being controversial. However, you shouldn't
be able to quote own the gene, what if it
has another use. It's good point and the epilogue on
the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Scalute describes a
(35:41):
disturbing scenario if you provide a sample of our DNA
to a medical professional of your own DNA UH and
it is found to have a mutation that's the foundation
of the next wonder drug. You are entitled to nothing,
so legally your sample is considered trash unless you've like
pre arranged some legal arrangement. That means you've abandoned it.
(36:03):
That's like Henry Alas. Are you familiar with her now,
I've heard that though if we talked about this, Yeah,
she's she's kind of famous in this really weird way.
She's like an African American lady from the forties or fifties,
and um, somehow she donated like her blood or some
tissue or something to science and it became the basis
(36:24):
of like all scientific research after that. So, like all
these breakthroughs and drugs and cancer blockers and all of
this pharmaceutical research was based on this culture that's still around.
Her line is still around. Why she's immortal and her yes,
and her family has gotten nothing from it. Interesting, and
(36:44):
you know, companies have made hundreds of billions of dollars
off of this lady's life, like her biology, and they've
got nothing. I haven't read the book, but I've heard
nothing but good things about it. To check that out.
So that's from GYM and New Jersey. Thanks Jim. Thanks
Henry at Thelas Okay said, I think forties or fifties.
(37:05):
Look that up, um, and I'm it's probably even worse
than that, I'm sure than the way I described it,
but I will probably end up reading it. Okay, Okay,
I'm done. I'm ready. Let's finish this thing. That was
a good one. Well done. Well done to YouTube buddy
who kept it very mature. Tip of the camp to
(37:26):
YouTube Sir dolphing it as well. Uh. If you want
to contact me and Chuck Um, you can tweet to
us at s y s K podcast. You can visit
us on Facebook at Facebook dot com, So Stuff you
should Know, and you can send us an email at
stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more
(37:50):
on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how
stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast,
click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner
of our homepage. So how Stuffork's iPhone app has arrived.
Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the
reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is always this
Charles W Chuck Bryant. He's got a new haircut. Everybody
(00:22):
looks really good. You can take my word for short,
high and tight. Yeah, high and tight. Makeing stuff you
should know? Chuck out his ears lowered? Have you ever
heard that? And I don't think anyone under seventy has
ever said that? Though, Yeah, well I just had. I
took the cake. Yes, speaking of have you ever heard
(00:43):
of the origin of the word cakewalk? The term cake walk?
I wrote a blog on it. You should check it out.
Very surprising. I'll check it out, very eye opening. Again,
tell us just go to the blog blog. Um, it's
so Chuck. Are you ready? Yes, Chuck, Yes, I want
to commend you. Okay, Um, just a day ago I
(01:08):
woke up, checked my smartphone and found an email and
you said, how about these for stuff you should know?
And one of them was what happens in the brain
during an orgasm? I'm sorry. Last week what happens in
the brain during an orgasm. And I thought, oh, man,
I don't know about that one. Like we've got some
(01:30):
younger listeners, like are we qualified to talk about this stuff?
I got I started sweating. Um, it was just it
was a wreck. It was a terrible way to wake up. Um.
And I emailed you and was like, are you sure?
And you said something that I thought was this is
why I'm commending you. You're like, look, man, we've done
(01:50):
a lot of stuff on like really violent things which
just off the top of my head, shrunken heads are
step by step guide to shrinking heads or check the
cannibalism at the Ripper. Um, and we have we've done
a lot of stuff about violent stuff. And you're like,
and I don't want to just be able to talk
about violent stuff but not be able to talk about sexuality,
(02:11):
like it's bad or worse than violence. I don't want
to play ball with that scene. And that is very
especially in America. It's a scene we just celebrated Thanksgiving.
We're a very puritanical country still. And that's absolutely true.
Like violence is celebrated and okay, sexuality is hidden and
it's not okay. Uh, And yeah, I don't subscribe to
(02:32):
that either. So I wanted to commend you for having
that level of foresight insight every kind of site and
forum suggesting we do this. Thanks for having said that.
If you're a parent, if you're a younger listener, maybe
you should ask your parents. We're gonna be very mature
about this, but it's not gonna be funny. But if
if you uh, if you don't think you want your
(02:53):
kid listening to uh anything about orgasms, then switch it off.
Hey man, you're the parent, we're not. It's up to
you to decide when you want your kid. Personally, I
went to sex ed when I was either the fifth
or sixth grade, so I learned about this stuff when
I was like from a teacher I was like seventh
or eight. Really I was younger. Yeah, yeah, well you're
(03:15):
you're very experienced. I remember one very funny thing that happened.
I can't say it. I wish I could. Oh yeah, yeah,
one kid in my class, I remember his name even
it was he asked a very funny question that he
wouldn't mean it to be funny. And but now that
I'm older, looking back, he was asking a legit question
and it was. It was funny. Yeah. Um, that was
(03:35):
a great story. My imagination is running wild right now.
All right, let's get to this, chuck. Yeah, let's this
is a really this is a bang up way to
start a podcast. Like what happens in the brain during
an orgasm? Defining orgasm from the Oxford English Dictionary. It's dry,
it's stayed, it's like clinical, it's perfect. It was perfect.
(03:59):
So let's do that the first one. There a sudden movement, spasm, contraction,
or convulsion, a surge of sexual excitement. That's pretty much
on the on the head there, right, Miriam Webster. Explosive
discharge of neuromuscular tension at the height of sexual arousal uh,
usually accompanied by the ejaculation of semen in the male
(04:21):
and by vaginal contractions in the female. And then famous
smut peddler Dr Alfred Kinsey, I'm sorry, sex researcher. Researcher
Alfred Kinsey. What was the name of the movie that
Ray Finds played him? Was it just Kinsey? It was
Kinsey and it was Liam Neeson. Yeah. Um, he called
(04:44):
an orgasm. It can be likened to the crescendo or
climax and sudden stillness achieved by an orchestra of human emotions. Also,
it could be compared to an explosion of tensions or
to sneezing, which Shane of Freeman, who wrote the this article,
took issue with. That's because it's not true. That's all myth,
(05:05):
like if you sneeze five times it's like an orgasm
where you'll have an orgasm. I don't think that's at
all what he was saying. A sense of tension and
then really immediate relief that washes over your body following
like a heavy sneeze. I think that's what he was saying. Yeah,
but there's an urban myth that if you sneeze like
five or seven times in a row. I don't think
Kinsey Dalton have been myths. That was a scientist I'm
(05:27):
saying since then. So the point of all this is
that the orgasm, while it is this um sensation that
washes over your body, it's an explosion of tensions. It's
like sneezing. Uh, It's accompanied by ejaculation and men um.
There's all these physiological experience is going on, but all
of it is centered in the brain. The point is
(05:49):
the orgasm takes place in the brain. And thanks to
the Wonder Machine, we now know pretty much what's going
on in the brain. We don't we don't fully understand orgasms,
but we have a much clearer picture than we did
even ten years ago, twenty years ago. Did you ever
hear the Billy Connolly, you know, the comedian his uh
(06:11):
He had one bit where he talks about when he
learned first learning of an orgasm, when he was like,
you know, twelve years old, like some older friend of
his or his brother or cousin taught him like how
to achieve it and what it was, and he's like,
you know, I did it, and it was the best
thing ever, And he said, and then he came back
to me the next day and was like, you only
get one thousand of those? He was like, the next
(06:31):
week I had used them all up. Well, I don't
know if it was a thousand, then I don't even
know if this is gonna make it on the air.
I'll find out. So let's start clean. So um, okay,
so we have let's let's talk about where all this
starts takes place. Orgasms begin in the genitalia and they
(06:52):
end in the brain. Yeah, pretty much, that's it. Or
they begin in the genitaliet, go to the brain and
then come back to the genitalia. Maybe, or they begin
in the brain and then go to the genitalia end
them back to the brain. We're gonna get to the
bottom of this. But essentially there's a lot of nerves
involved in this, and there's um you know, you're not
going to be surprised to find that the genitalia, both
(07:14):
male and female, are extremely sensitive nerve wise. Apparently the
clitteress um is has about eight thousand nerve endings just
in itself. Uh, comparatively speaking, the penis circumcised penis is,
I understand it has about four thousand nerve endings and
the whole thing that glands. Oh really yes, but and
(07:36):
I didn't see this substantiated anywhere, but an uncircumcised penis
supposedly has like twenty five thousand nerve endings in it.
That's all propaganda. Is that brought to you by the
Circumcision Society Anti Circumcisi was It was on one of
those sites. And also that reminds me, go listen to
the circumcision podcast. That was a good one. Did you
(07:56):
just want to remind yourself that we can cover these
things without laughing. No, I just remember that we did circumcision,
and then I thought you were just like, I gotta,
I gotta do this. I gotta be able to say
the word penis without laughing. Penis gland. All right. Uh,
so what happens is you got all these nerve endings
UM during intercourse and a climax that will be UM
(08:17):
messages sent through these large nerves that run up your
spinal cord, except for the vagus nerve, which will It
is very important that we mentioned that bypasses the spinal
cord uh and to the brain and tells the brain, Hey,
this is great, this feels awesome. You want to you
wanna do this again. And there's a different bundles there,
(08:41):
I guess, stimulated in different areas, right, Yeah, So you've
got like the hypogastric nerve um, which is located in
the uterus and cervix and women, and in the prostrate
in men. So if you tickle these areas you can
conceivably achieve orgasm through the hypogastric nerve. There's a pelvic
nerve transmits from the vagina and cervix and women obviously,
(09:03):
and from the rectum of both sexes. Yeah, there's some
overlap here. Uh, you go ahead and say that. Next one, Uh,
the pedundele nerve. Yeah, that's pudendale or pudundal I'm not
sure which, or pudundle, but either way it's p U
d E n d A L. Right, that's the clitteress
in women and the scrotum and penis and men. So
(09:24):
that's like kind of the that's the well established, long
understood bundle of nerves, is it. Yeah, because the whole
like the whole concept that a woman can even have
an orgasm is pretty recent. It's pretty new, like the
last century. Yeah, as far as science goes. You go
to Europe and asked some lady a hundred years ago,
(09:45):
two hundred years ago, I's gonna be like, what are
you stupid? Yes, watch this. They're like, oh, that's what
that's called. We thought you just had the humors, right. Uh.
And then you've got the vegas nerve, which we uh said,
by passes the spinal cord. It transmits from the cervix
uterus and vagina and of the nerve fibers or sensory
(10:08):
in the vegas nerve. So the vegas nerve is the
money nerve um and it controls more than just orgasms. Apparently,
if you have vegas nerve damage, you choke when you
try to swallow liquids. We talked about that in something
we've said vegas before, and it had to do with choking.
I'll bet you it was either competitive eating or swords
following Was it sword swallowing? Okay, so the vegas nerve
(10:31):
is involved in swallowing as well as in um uh orgasm.
And I could only find obviously then if it's involved
in swallowing, it's in men and women. But I could
only find reference to the vegas nerve and orgasms in
relation to female orgasms. But we'll get to that later.
And the vegas nerves though, also, like you said, that's
a pretty important nerve and it's very only recently discovered
(10:54):
as far as orgasms go. But the big key to
it is that it by hass as the spinal cord
and go straight to the brain, which is really really
good news for a certain subset of the human population
Chuck a k a. Paraplegics sample who have suffered catastrophic
spinal injuries, even people whose spines have been interrupted like
(11:16):
their spines. Their spinal cords are no longer connected top
and bottom. They're totally paralyzed. They can still um come
to climax, which is new because that was I mean forever.
They said, you know, those days are over for you
pretty much. But thank you Dr Berry Kamiseruk St. Kamiseruk,
(11:40):
who we should just call this guy Dr Oh because
he is the as far as I can sell, the
pre eminent orgasm scientists. He and Whipple are he and
Dr Whipple Beverly Beverly, That's that's what the paraplegic people
call her. Of course they do. Uh. They are at
Rutger's at rat giz goos Arlette nights. And they did
(12:02):
some tests on women in two thousand four who had
severed spinal cords, and they found that they could feel
stimulation in their cervicts. They could reach orgasm, and they
did the m r I and said, hey, it looks
like this thing is bypassing. Yeah, they're saying this is
real because the the m r I machine lit up
like it's supposed to write, and like you said that,
(12:25):
they showed that the areas of the brain that respond
to the vegas nerve we're lighting up especially, and they're like, oh,
it's the vegas nerve, which is I mean, we're not
getting around. That is great news because that's one of
the most upsetting parts I would imagine of spinal injury
is to say goodbye to that part of your life,
you know, to lose your sexuality like that. One of
(12:47):
my um good friends stated a girl who was paralyzed
from the waist down and she was able to um,
I have an orgasm. Thank you, vegas nerve. Yeah, the
vegas nerves basically proof that him in our God's favorite.
Oh yeah, no, actually, we'll see that's quite the opposite.
That's right. I mean the vegas nervous it's it's pretty
(13:09):
great for women, but overall, dumb lumbering men have it
a way better. Yeah, as we'll see. Okay, so let's
talk about the brain. Let's talk about the pleasure center
a k a. Reward circuit. This is a pretty new
Like the nineteen fifties is when they first kind of
discovered this, and it seems like we talked about this too.
(13:31):
They did experiments on rats. They basically hooked them up
in the skinner box and said, hey, if you go
push this button, you're gonna get rewarded in a very
pleasurable way in your brain. It was like cocaine or something,
wasn't it. I think so? And they they found out
that the brats really loved it, to the tune of
about seven button pushes an hour, and they didn't eat anymore,
(13:55):
didn't want water anymore. They just lay there and push
this button. And it was and cocaine. They had electro's
implanted in the brain's rewards, so it was going and
just stimulating everything. No, but I think it had to
do with a study on drugs, because the reward center,
like sexual arousal and the high from drugs, is what
a lot of it's going on there. Well, not only that, eating, laughing,
(14:17):
hanging out with other people, basically anything that ensures our
survival as a species or as an individual. Um, the
reward center has something to do with it. And the
whole point of the reward center is we get this
release of dopamine, this pleasurable um, this pleasurable chemical um
that teaches us, wow, this feels really good. I want
to do that again, so I will survive. These rats
(14:39):
died of exhaustion, though, Yeah, exactly, that's so crazy, but
that's where they discovered it in the fifties. And um,
if we're gonna talk about the pleasure center, and we
should mention a few specific areas, like the amygdala right
regulates your emotions, and we talked about the brain a lot,
so this is sort of rehashed. This is kind of
like up there with fight or flight, Like we talked
about the reward circuit quite a bit. We do because
(15:00):
we like it. Well, it's a great circuit. I wish
I had that button. I'd be pushing it seven hundred
times an hour and I have to come along and
be like, you need to stop. The nucleus accumbents, which
I don't think we've ever mentioned on the show. I
think we have we have that controls the release of dopamine.
It's part of the limbic system and this plays a
really big role in sexual arousal and like the high
(15:23):
you feel from from certain drugs. The v t A
or the ventral tegmental area that actually releases the dopamine,
It takes its orders from the nucleus acumens a cumbins.
The cerebellum controls your muscle function. Muscles are very important,
uh in an orgasm and the pituitary gland. Here's this
is a big one because it's not just dopamine the
(15:45):
pleasure that you've since like you you just you know,
it's not just pleasure. There's other stuff going on, Like
there's tristesse crying after sex, Like that's not just pleasure.
That's you're overwhelmed with emotions sometimes and that is thanks
to our friend the pituitary gland, which releases beta endorphins
that decreased pain, oxytocin, which increased feelings of trust that's oppressing,
(16:09):
which increases bonding UM and a lot of these same
hormones and chemicals are released UM when you give birth,
when a woman gives birth as well, which apparently forms
bonds between mother and child. And also UM these things
are released I think like oxytocin is a lactation chemical
as well, so both mother and child during breastfeeding UM
(16:32):
bond have like basically re overwhelmed with the sense of like,
I really like you, and I get this sense you
like me too, so let's hang out. Yeah. Oxytocin is
called the hormone of love and actually means quick birth
in Greek. And not only is it released during childbirth,
but it sort of facilitates childbirth and um, nipple stimulation,
(16:56):
it is released and that's what makes you lack DA
which is pretty cool and calmness. It reduces your anxiety,
makes you calm. So ocutosin up with oxytocin. Yeah. Investip
pressing too has similar effects as well. So you've got
all these chemicals flooding your body, You've got your reward
circuit going. Yeah, and um, this is the orgasm basically,
(17:21):
especially the female orgasm. We should say, like the male
orgasm includes ejaculation, and it's been long understood what's going
on there, right, But like it's pretty much an A
to B relationship. Yeah. But like I said, like it
was pretty recent, like the middle of last century that
people that science came to really say like, okay, all right,
(17:42):
so this is real. Women are just trying to get
on board here, like they they really are experiencing something.
And then in the late nineties and um, mid two thousands,
a group of Dutch researchers said, we're going to take
this m ri I, We're gonna stick people in this
mri I, We're going to bring them to orgasm and
then we're gonna watch what goes on in their brains. Yeah,
(18:02):
well first they use the PET scan. Okay, you're right.
I'm sorry. And actually, since you mentioned men, you told
me in another email said this article is sexist because
it only talks about women almost and I looked that up.
Apparently it's because the men's orgasm is so short it's
hard to study it. Okay, so it's like boom, it's over,
(18:24):
whereas a woman can have a prolonged orgasm. Much easier
to study that. All right, Um, to pet scan. So
the PET scan. But think about this is like the
swing in his study since like King Kazy, you know, um,
this is uh. These these test subjects were brought to
orgasm that pet they were their brains were watched with
(18:45):
PET scans later on MRI s and what the Dutch
researchers found was that there really aren't that many differences
in the brains between men and women as far as
the pleasure circuit goes. They saw all the stuff they
expected to see. Um. Apparently, the the the brain if
you take a snapshot of maybe the peak of it
(19:07):
during orgasm or peak orgasm, and you compared it to
a snapshot of the peak of a heroin dose. Uh,
it looks the same, one of the Dutch researchers said,
But there are differences between men's orgasms and women's orgasms
as far as brain regions are concerned. And it's not
really surprising what they found when you hear it. It's
(19:28):
kind of intuitive, you know. Well. The other thing that
they found was the same, though, is that the orbital
orbital frontal cortex shut down for both. And that is
the where you the seat of reason and behavioral control
in your brain. So it's no surprise that that thing
shuts down for both of us. You just completely lose control.
You're enthralled by your orgasm. So the differences that you
(19:51):
mentioned when a woman has sex, the I had this
so right earlier period coductile gray PG is activated and
uh it saysn't here controls fight or flight. I got
more that it provokes your defense responses and it's not
necessarily controlling fightre flight. You know? Is that right? Is
(20:12):
it activating and or stimulating it? It just said what
I saw is said it provokes your defense responses, which
is interesting. Okay, Well, I mean you can say defense
responses fight or flight. Yeah, that's true. Was part of
it at least. Uh. The woman's brain showed decreased activity
in the middala and hippocampus. This one made sense to me.
Deals with fear anxiety. So fear and anxiety are out
(20:33):
the door all of a sudden. Yeah, which makes sense
because for a woman to have and enjoy sex, and
it takes um. Just physically speaking, it takes far more
trust than it does for a man, and emotionally, right,
you need to be relaxed general. Uh. And then here
was one that I thought was kind of interesting. UM.
The part of the cortex associated with pain, the insular cortex,
(20:57):
which UM is used to judge like the the ferocity
basically of pain, like just how bad pain is, is activated.
So it's basically scanning, looking looking out for pain, or
judging the experience based on partially through the lens of pain.
I think everyone's been there, whether it's like tickling or anything.
(21:18):
We're like, oh, I hate that, I hate that, but
I love that. I love that. Very fine line. Sometimes
there's a very egalitarian interpretation checkers, thank you. UM. Faking
an orgasm. Not surprisingly, of course, it doesn't use the
same part of the brain. There's really bears almost no
resemblance whatsoever. I didn't even think that should have been included.
I didn't either, but I was mad in shanea Freeman
(21:40):
for being sexist at the time when I read that.
Now that I look back on it, I still don't
think it should have been included. That's right, um so, Chuck.
We've been giving all of the kudos and attention to
people who have orgasms, no problem, right, m hmm. There
are people out there who, um are who who can't
(22:04):
have orgasms, and yes, they have an orgasmia, which is
an inability to achieve an orgasm. And one of the
big culprits are S SR eyes serotonin as something reuptake inhibitor.
What was the other s? I can't Yes, select serotonin
(22:25):
reuptake inhibitor, which keeps serotonin in your synapses longer, so
you cannot be depressed. The problem is it decreases the
production the natural production of dopamine in your brain, and dopamine,
obviously is how we learn to enjoy and go do
something like achieving an orgasm again. So fortunately, once people
(22:47):
wean themselves off of S S R eyes or start
taking other drugs, that increased dopamine production, usually that an
orgasmia goes away, usually not all the time. Sadly a
very small person enage. I didn't get a number, but
I did see that was uncommon, thankfully. Uh post s
s ri I. Sexual dysfunction means after you have weaned
(23:09):
yourself off and you're producing dopamine regularly, you're still not
able to achieve an orgasm. Right. They have no idea
why because they're like, your dopamines working, Like what, what's
your problem? And this is thanks to Dr oh again, right,
I believe, so it's all over this stuff. Uh he um.
That's one of the main reasons he's studying the orgasm.
(23:31):
By the way, it's not just to like like, oh cool,
look at the brain. It's to help people that are
an orgasmic or who suffered from persistent sexual arousal syndrome,
which sounds horrible. Yeah. That means you're always sexually aroused,
but you can't achieve orgasm right right, and like you're
genuinely always sexually aroused. Um. Dr oh uh looked at
(23:54):
women who have p s A s UM and put
them in an mri I and looked at their brains
and their brains are showing like, yeah, I'm turned on
right now. I'm turned on right now for no good reason.
I can't do anything about it. But I'm turned on
right now. And then even if I try to have
an orgasm, I can't. But the science supported it. Yeah, alright, right, right, yeah,
(24:18):
So I mean these people were physically sexually aroused and
they couldn't do anything about it. He figured out that, um,
they can use um like meditation techniques apparently works. Um
basically calming techniques apparently hasn't has an impact on decreasing
the sexual arousal. I think he's still trying to figure
(24:39):
out the an orgasmia part. Josh, did you know that
some people can orgasm from being touched in other parts
of their body other than the genitalium. I did know that,
for instance, the nipples that happened. Sometimes they think that
these sensations are transmitted to the same areas of the
brain as the ones that come from your genitals, and
(25:00):
so it's just the brain saying all right, I'll give
you a little bonus there. You know, it's it's lighting
up the right part of the brain. So here's an orgasm.
Um Apparently also knees knows people. Um, there apparently women
out there who can have orgasms just from imagery alone,
no touching, no touching. Um. And again these people are
(25:24):
in m r s. The brain is lighting up and
they're saying it science supports this woman is actually having
an orgasm from a no touch encounter. The phantom limb
thing is what it really gets me. Yeah, do you
want to talk about that? Yeah? I mean apparently some
people can. Did they do they feel the orgasm in
(25:44):
their phantom limb? Yes? Is that what it's not? It
doesn't generate there. So you know how you have when
you experience an orgasm, chuck, You know how it's concentrated
in your genitalia. Imagine if that sensation we're in your foot,
like that's what felt good, just as easily could right now.
Imagine that your foot have been amputated years before, but
(26:08):
you're still feeling your orgasm in your phantom foot. That's
what they're talking about that. Well, they think what happened
is Um. There's a basically a map of your brain.
The way we interpret it is as a maps called
the cortical homunculous and the cortical homunculous is like, Okay,
this part of the body corresponds to this part of
the brain, like the nerves here correspond here. And apparently
(26:30):
if you suffer an amputation, your brain is like, well,
I need to rewire myself and need to remap a
little bit. So, um, I'm going to assign the sensation
in the foot that's not there any longer to the genitalia,
so the brain can become confused by the genitalia being
stimulated that experience can be felt in the amputated foot,
(26:54):
for example. That's what scientists think right now. You can
also say that they have no idea what's going but
people are reporting having orgasms and phantom limbs. I think
it's my new band name, too, Cortical homunculous. I've got
some breaking news, Josh. This is a surprise for you.
My friend Dr oh is at it again. And this
(27:16):
was just released on the old ap wire last week. No,
they kicked it up a notch and had ladies sit
in the f m R I machine, which is even
kicked up a notch from the regular m R I
And they now have the first movie of the female
(27:37):
brain as it approaches experiences and recovers from an orgasm.
So they put this couple of ladies actually, and one
of them talked about it. She did a little uh,
I think she blocked about it. She said that one
of the problems in doing this, obviously is you have
to not move very much at all because it will
disrupt the data. So they fitted her with a breathable
(27:59):
plastic mesh helmet that was screwed into the bed to
keep her still. And um, how he's got an eyeswight
chut for some reason. And um, they told her to
practice being still while you know, bringing yourself to climax.
So she uh, duct taped a kittie bell from her
(28:22):
cats uh what do you call it? The collar onto
her forehead and for two weeks practice bringing yourself to
climax without ringing that bell. And she said, you know,
I got good, good enough at it to successfully do
this in the experiment, and uh, it was successful. So
you can go on the internet now and look this up,
(28:42):
um and watch this video the animation plays. Um, you
see the activity building up in the Genitalia area of
the century cortex like it should. Then, um, activity is
spreading to the limbic system. Then it spreads to the
limbic system, which is involved in emotion and long term memory.
Then as the orgasm arrives, activity shoots up in two
(29:03):
parts of the brain, the cerebellum in the frontal cortex
that controlled the muscular tension. So all of a sudden,
the muscles like contract really heavily, so that shoots up
during the orgasm um it reaches a peak in the hypothalamus,
and that's when it releases the oxytocin and all that
good stuff and causes the uterus to contract and I'm sorry,
(29:26):
the nucleus acumbens is uh, that's also firing off during
the peak because controlling the release of yeah, and then
afterwards everything like you see, it just goes. You goes
from all colorful back to the cold, dead blackness of
your brain. The Derrito's center starts becoming active. So check.
(29:50):
There's a there's a very big question that we haven't
really answered. We understand why men have orgasms. Why do
women have orgasms evolutionarily? But why? I mean, it doesn't
make any sense. If it's an evolutionary adaptation like it
is for men, then why is it so hard for
(30:11):
some women to have orgasm? You you know, ten of
women will go through their entire lifetimes without ever experience
any or an orgasm. That's a lot. So if it's evolutionary,
that just that completely pulls the rug out of that
whole idea, because then it should be really easy for
women and men. Right, Okay, So one of the ideas
(30:35):
that's long been bandied about is a byproduct theory, like,
you know why men have nipples because women have nipples
all humans, so at some point during gestation or whatever,
we still keep ours even though we don't need them
and don't need nipples. But we're humans and women need nipples,
so it makes sense I don't use mine anymore. Um.
(30:56):
They think that possibly the female orgasm is the same
thing men and women are both humans. Men need to
have orgasms, so women do as byproduct. In this really
weird study that came out last year of twins, um,
they studied same sex twins and opposite sex twins, and
same sex twins had similar orgasm patterns. Right opposite sex twins, who,
(31:20):
if it is just a byproduct, um, should have the
same or similar orgasm patterns. It didn't hold up. So
where does that leave us? Well, we have no ideas.
Con They think that it could possibly be an evolutionary remnant,
like it was uh strategic to our survival at some
point in the distant pass and it's just a relic
that kind of hangs around, which is kind of a
(31:42):
depressing thought because then that means we're watching it as
it's endangered and it's growing extinct, and that's sad, and
I think that it needs to be snatched back from
the grips of natural selection. Well, some things maybe just
shouldn't be studied. Maybe you should just the I don't know,
I'm sure there's women out there saying just put those
(32:03):
studies away. Yeah, let's just look at it as a
big as a big bonus. And that's thanks, big guy.
That's when dr Oe flicks the switch and the disco
ball comes down from the ceiling. So if you want
to know more about orgasms and see some pretty cool
stock images of lit brains and things like that, you
can type in what happens in the brain during an orgasm?
(32:26):
You probably just type in orgasm in the search bart
how stuff works dot com. It will bring up some
interesting cool stuff. Sure, um and uh, I said search bar.
I believe. So that means it's time for a listener
mail Josh. Before we move on, we have to uh
announce I believe, one final time about our contest. That's
(32:47):
the last time because the contest ends December thirty one,
I believe. Right. You have to enter to win, as
they say, yeah, and you have to enter only through Facebook. Yes,
you have to like the house stuff Works dot Com
facebook page, not the stuff you Should Know page. We
and I say this enough yet still people right in
on our stuff you should know well and say where
do you enter how stuffworks dot Com? Like it? You
(33:08):
have to enter a few small details nothing to uh
uh obtrusive? Right, nothing too intrusive? What did I say? Uh?
You have through the end of the year, through December
thirty one to enter. We're gonna announce the winner the
first week of the year. What a great way to
start your year off, exactly like knowing that you're coming
to me. A couple of grand prize is you get
(33:30):
to fly to Atlanta up to five dollars air fair covered, uh,
stay in a hotel covered, get an Amex gift cards
hundred bucks for like um nail clippers because you can't
fly with those. That's right? And uh, if you refer someone.
You can tweet it out or say this is my
Facebook status as I just entered this. If you refer
(33:51):
someone and they win after they entered, then you win
a kindle fire, right, and you don't have to keep
track of that. We have like people who who track
those metrics. There's an algorithm. Yeah, so it's it's it's
a pretty cool contest, pretty straightforward. But we get to
go to lunch. I don't think we said that. You
come to the office, you get a tour, Yeah, we
got we take you to lunch. We take you to lunch.
Yeah with Jerry, Jerry's coming. We're not gonna make you
(34:13):
spend that m X gift card on it. That's for you.
Although if they want to buy me Neil clippers, I'm
not gonna stop. And uh, sorry to those of you
in other countries. I know it's a rub that you
have to be in the United States here, but we
can't win your lotteries or your contest in New Zealand,
so you can't win on ours. It's just the way
contests work. Yes, and uh, just go to the House
(34:35):
Stuff Works Facebook page and I'm sure there'll be some
sort of something up that says Hey, you should enter
this contest. Agreed. Okay, so I think we should get
on with it. That's right, Josh. This is about gene patenting,
I believe. And it's from Jim in New Jersey, Garden State.
(34:56):
I loves your patent podcast. Guys at Dovetail about that
word very nicely with the Tech Stuff patent podcast. Yeah,
that's what he says. I'm of the opinion that if
you construct a new gene, then you can patent it. However,
if you discover a gene already existing in nature, then
I'm not sure that you should be able to patent it.
This is just Jim's opinion. Maybe you can patent the
(35:19):
process of identifying the gene seems reasonable. Maybe you can
patent a specific use of the gene, such as for testing,
which you clearly covered as being controversial. However, you shouldn't
be able to quote own the gene, what if it
has another use. It's good point and the epilogue on
the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Scalute describes a
(35:41):
disturbing scenario if you provide a sample of our DNA
to a medical professional of your own DNA UH and
it is found to have a mutation that's the foundation
of the next wonder drug. You are entitled to nothing,
so legally your sample is considered trash unless you've like
pre arranged some legal arrangement. That means you've abandoned it.
(36:03):
That's like Henry Alas. Are you familiar with her now,
I've heard that though if we talked about this, Yeah,
she's she's kind of famous in this really weird way.
She's like an African American lady from the forties or fifties,
and um, somehow she donated like her blood or some
tissue or something to science and it became the basis
(36:24):
of like all scientific research after that. So, like all
these breakthroughs and drugs and cancer blockers and all of
this pharmaceutical research was based on this culture that's still around.
Her line is still around. Why she's immortal and her yes,
and her family has gotten nothing from it. Interesting, and
(36:44):
you know, companies have made hundreds of billions of dollars
off of this lady's life, like her biology, and they've
got nothing. I haven't read the book, but I've heard
nothing but good things about it. To check that out.
So that's from GYM and New Jersey. Thanks Jim. Thanks
Henry at Thelas Okay said, I think forties or fifties.
(37:05):
Look that up, um, and I'm it's probably even worse
than that, I'm sure than the way I described it,
but I will probably end up reading it. Okay, Okay,
I'm done. I'm ready. Let's finish this thing. That was
a good one. Well done. Well done to YouTube buddy
who kept it very mature. Tip of the camp to
(37:26):
YouTube Sir dolphing it as well. Uh. If you want
to contact me and Chuck Um, you can tweet to
us at s y s K podcast. You can visit
us on Facebook at Facebook dot com, So Stuff you
should Know, and you can send us an email at
stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more
(37:50):
on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how
stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast,
click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner
of our homepage. So how Stuffork's iPhone app has arrived.
Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the
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