Scientists see women's brains switch off during sex

Readers worried that their female partners may be faking it can now rest easy. As long you keep brain scanner close at hand in the bedroom, you’ll be able to find out if you really are the best, the best, the best, or whether she’s actually running through the shopping list ahead of your next trip to Safeways.

A group of researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands – where else - scanned the brains of 13 women and 11 men as they were brought to orgasm by their partners. The resulting brain images were compared to images of the subjects’ brains while at rest.

Reuters reports that the researchers told a fertility conference today that when the women were experiencing a genuine humdinger of an orgasm, areas of the brain governing fear and emotion, such as the cortex, were deactivated. However, when the women faked orgasm, those areas stayed alert.

The results for men were less conclusive, with those areas linked to emotion and fear showing less de-activation during orgasm, while other areas showed more stimulation. This of course is no surprise at all - as it’s hard to super-impose Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt/St Bob Geldof/Margaret Thatcher over your regular partner's visage without using at least some parts of your brain.

There was no mention of whether the results may have been affected by the fact the couples were being watched by a bunch of geeks in white coats while at least one partner had their head connected to a machine that goes bing. ®


By Joe Fay (joe.fay at theregister.co.uk)
Published Monday 20th June 2005 14:30 GMT
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/20/o_research/