The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Scientists see women's brains switch off during sex

When Harry scanned Sally

  • print
  • alert

Cloud based data management

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. ®

Related stories

Big-O problems may be down to genes
Boffins pinpoint trust hormone
SF hosts 'Masturbate-a-thon'
Gamble or get orgasm tips on your mobile

SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had

More from The Register

New material enables 1,000-meter super-skyscrapers
Before you read on, see if you can guess how the new stuff will be used
Boffins build headless robo-kitties
Soft kitty, warm kitty, cuddly little ball of wire kitty
 breaking news
Latest NASA ASTRONAUT class is HALF FEMALE
Newbie 'nauts include lady Marine fighter pilot, male doctor
House bill: 'Hey NASA, that asteroid retrieval plan? Fuggedaboutit'
Republican-led committee also swings budget axe at climate science
 breaking news
You've seen the Large Hadron Collider. Now comes the HUGE Hadron Collider
International Linear Collider ready to rock and roll
Boffins find evidence Atlantic Ocean has started closing
'Embryonic subduction zone' that flattened Lisbon headed for Blighty
Google launches broadband balloons, radio astronomy frets
A careless Loon could blind the square kilometre array
Hubble spies unlikely planet being born in hostile neighborhood
Hoovering a cloud of sand 7.5 billion miles from a tiny star
 breaking news
Jaguar to open new car-making factory in Blighty (virtually)
Britain still makes stuff, it's just not real any more...