Headline of the day

Brain Areas Shut Off During Female Orgasm

Um...duh.

AP reports:

New research indicates parts of the brain that govern fear and anxiety are switched off when a woman is having an orgasm but remain active if she is faking.

In the first study to map brain function during orgasm, scientists from the Netherlands also found that as a woman climaxes, an area of the brain governing emotional control is largely deactivated.

"The fact that there is no deactivation in faked orgasms means a basic part of a real orgasm is letting go. Women can imitate orgasm quite well, as we know, but there is nothing really happening in the brain," said neuroscientist Gert Holstege, presenting his findings Monday to the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

. . .

"During orgasm, there was strong, enormous deactivation in the brain. During fake orgasm, there was no deactivation of the brain at all. None," Holstege said.

Shutting down the brain during orgasm may ensure that obstacles such as fear and stress did not get in the way, Holstege proposed. "Deactivation of these very important parts of the brain might be the most important necessity for having an orgasm," he said.

And here we are thinking several things. First, we suspect Gert Holstege may have some personal issues he could fruitfully share with a therapist of some kind. His "as we know" and "None," seem a bit forceful to us and we wonder if his research is motivated by some sort of last-laugh impulse.

Gert aside, NMTE offers this as the latest in our biology/romance series--the "why we do the things we do" strain of personal blogging. And so my fellow blog grrrlz, if any of you have found yourselves redecorating the relationship house while it was burning down around you, be solaced with the knowledge that your biology was your destiny. It's not your fault--the sex gave you brain damage.