Has anyone ever studied - I mean, in a rigorous, reproducible, peer-reviewed manner - what the brain does during sex? What do brain waves look like during orgasm and just after?
Color me curious.
Jeez I just hate to see a question go unanswered around here.
From this site:
http://www.boylefamily.co.uk/boyle/texts/atlas_3.html
"In the Sperm sequence a couple wired up to ECG and EEG celebrated intercourse, while the oscilloscopes of the ECG and EGG were televised on closed circuit television and projected with an Eidafor TV projector on to a large screen behind the couple. Thus, their heartbeats and brainwaves were instantly visible and every excitement and tension was immediately revealed. "
Happy now you dirty minded little individual?
Phouka, if you don’t mind, why would you like to know? Would you like to compare brain waves during sex to other activities? Or to have a CD of them and watch/listen to it?
Call it idle curiosity. I understand that brain waves are significantly different during REM sleep, and from my personal experience, sex sometimes takes me to a different realm of conciousness. Thanks for the answers, guys.
Phouka, not much help here, eh? I guess, not every average doctor knows. EEG was discovered/invented many years ago, it’s still not a routine diagnostic procedure. As far as I know (not much to begin with), the waves are not very specific, i.e. activity can be told from inactivity, but even the region of origin is hard to pinpoint. PET scan is a good tool to study brain activity, but during sex… Perhaps, masturbation…
Anyway, answering your question: “sex” is a combination of mild muscular activity and some emotional upturn (depends). So, my guess would be that wave pattern would be that of “active” brain.
Sorry that I am so vague.
Not a brainwave study, but in the 60s William Masters and Virginia Johnson conducted research of "ongoing sexual “behaviour” and recorded the physiological chages that occured in men and women. I won’t really go over the results (from whats in the psych textbook I have) but I thought it was interesting to know that “to study the female sexual response, they even invented a transparent plastic “penis” through which they could photograph vaginal changes during sexual arousal.”
Mnemo, interesting piece. Do you personally think that that research was relevant, i.e. that sexual response to a plastic penis was the same as to a warm blooded lover?
That was in the 60s, eh? Suddenly it floods new light on the Jefferson Airplane song about my "Plastic Fantastic Lover!"
[nit-pick]Jefferson Airplane’s song P.F.L. was about television.[/nit-pick]