NOTICE
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON DRUGS SEX.
SPENCER ALTMAN
"It's like this buildup of the best tension, and then it releases into a rush that makes me convulse and tingle throughout my body. Then I just want to lie still and smile for a while."
- Jackie, an Overland Park senior
"It's the best thing in the world, almost like you're in a sweating turmoil and then dunked into a bath of ice water. But you feel great, like you're oblivious to everything except your own weightlessness."
-Dave, a Dallas senior
The above are a female and male student's description of what the French call "le petite mort," or "the little death" — a metaphor they use to explain the brief spiritual release that accompanies an orgasm.
Though you might think of sex as a physical sensation, it all starts in your head. So exactly what parts of the brain are active during stimulation? And how do they explain the sensations that register leading up to and during climax?
To answer those questions, neuroscientists have begun using imaging scanners to map the areas of the brain that flare up during an orgasm to better understand why it feels so damn good. The scans measure the amount of blood flowing to the different parts of the brain in response to different stimuli.
In 2003, Dutch neurologist Gert Holstege began observing both male and female participants using positron emission tomography (PET) scans. What he found in both was an increase in blood flow to a section of the midbrain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which, unsurprisingly, is responsible for the release of dopamine.
Dopamine is a chemical produced in your body that's integral to your reward and pleasure system. The VTA releases different amounts when you eat, exercise, have sex, problem-solve, or take drugs like cocaine and heroin. For some, the reward and pleasure feeling is so great they become addicted.
Holstege believes the gratification of sex is a
factor of evolution, explaining that the brain has two goals; survival of the individual and survival of the species.
"When you do something good for survival of the species, like ejaculation, you're brain lets you know this by giving you feeling of pleasure and reward," he says.
What was more interesting in Holstege's findings has to do with a deactivation, or silence, in women's brains in areas that elicit fear and anxiety.
"What we see is these women 'let it go' at the moment of orgasm, and if they can't let it go — we're talking around 30 percent of women
we're talking achieve orpsam" he says.
While many seemingly healthy women report an inability to achieve orgasm, others who have neurological conditions such as spinal cord injury (despite doctors who deny the possibility) say they can.
When Rutgers University neuroscientist Barry Komisaruk sought answers to this phenomenon he found their stimulation was via the Vagus nerves, which bypass the spinal cord on the way to the brain, but he also recorded something even more surprising.
"We see a number of women who can
actually think themselves into orgasm without any physical stimulation," he says.
To test their claims, he first measured the bodily reactions that accompany an orgasm — the doubling of heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, and pain threshold — and found that the women were telling the truth.
Komisaruk and his colleagues use functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map their participants' brain activity during orgasm, which appears much closer to real-time than
PEI scans. By doing so, they were able to show the sequence of brain areas that become active leading up to, and during orgasm. Komisaruk and his colleagues presented their step-by-step findings earlier this week at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting.
First to be activated in the minutes leading up to orgasm are the sensory areas that process the physical stimuli that have been sent via the spinal cord to the brain. Then the amygdala (regulates emotion and fear) and hippocampus (behavioral inhibition) begin to light up, followed by the climaxing rush of dopamine let out by the nucleus accumbens and spread throughout the VTA.
Before we get the reward of dopamine, we're hit with shots of neuropenphrine and epinephrine (adrenaline) that are responsible for the raised blood pressure, awareness, and tingly sensation described during orgasm. On top of that, both men, and especially women, receive secretions of the hormone oxytocin, which causes feelings of attachment.
Oxytocin is responsible for much more, says University biologist David Pendergrass, who gives seminars on the role of sex in the brain.
"It's probably the reason why having intercourse with your partner more frequently actually contributes to you staying together as a couple," he says.
Pendergrass also suggests that "better" sex propels more oxytocin into the bloodstream, thus making a woman more prone to attachment with that individual. So not only does the brain control the initial arousal that inspires sex and the pleasures that are a product of it, but also the long-term attachment that produces relationships. "It's all in your brain. It starts and ends there," he says.
The natural highs we feel during sex come from the same chemicals that get you high on drugs. Here are a few that start flowing during the most intimate of moments:
DOPAMINE // Produced in many areas of the brain, most notably the ventral tegmental area (VTA), dopamine plays important roles in pleasure, reward, motivation, sleep, mood, and attention.
EPINEPHRINE // Also known as adrenaline. It affects nearly all body tissues and is responsible
NOREPINEPHRINE // Synthesized from dopamine, this stress hormone affects many areas of the brain. Along with epinephrine, it elicits the fight-or-flight response by increasing heart rate and blood pressure.
for that tingly feeling and muscle contractions.
SEROTONIN // While most of your serotonin reserves are in your gut, this neurotransmitter is responsible for feelings of well-being and is an active ingredient in many antidepressants.
OXYTOCIN / Not only does the release of this neurotransmitter accompany women during labor and breastfeeding, it's also released during orgasm in both men and women and has affects on long-term bonding.
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Howard Ting/KANSAN
The seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows premiered this morning at 12 a.m. at the Hollywood Theaters — South Wind 12 on Iowa Street. Many Potter fans support their support by dressing up as their favorite wizard or witch.
ADMINISTRATION
Regents assess University's proposals
BY ANGELIQUE
MCNAUGHTON
amcaughtonkansan
The Kansas Board of Regents met Thursday in Topeka with higher education officials from state universities.
Much of the meeting was devoted to discussing issues pertaining to the University of Kansas and Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little addressed Regents on four separate occasions.
The following is a list of some of the issues and proposals that Regents reviewed and their effects on students and the University.
This year's increase proposals are lower than they were last year because of the deactivation of student phone lines in student rooms from the summer. That saved the University about $500,000.
Diana Robertson, director of student housing, said she based her proposals off estimated increases for the following year.
T h e University's request for
Approved:
two-person room raising the rate from $3,642 to $3,700.
The University's increases were
"If you can't track where a dollar comes from and where it goes, then you don't have a good system."
a Master of Arts and doctorate program in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies was approved. Refer to Stephen Montemayor's article for more information regarding the program.
GARY SHERRER chairman, Board of Regents
Regents reviewed the Department of Student Housing's proposal for a 1.6 percent increase in housing fees. The increase in fees is not uncommon and occurs annually to offset the increases in the cost of living.
A 1.6 percent increase translates to about $58 more for a traditional
Reviewed:
the lowest proposed from the state universities.
Regents received the University's report on the Jayhawk Generations Scholarship Program and
approved the request to make the pilot program permanent. For more information regarding the tuition and fee waiver program refer to Stephen Gray's article.
Gray-Little and Provost Jeffrey Vitter updated Regents on the external audit recently ordered for the School of Business. The accounting firm BKD LLC performed the audit and stated in its report that of the $30 million raised since 2004 from course fees, 99.8 percent of the funds were spent appropriately.
Updated:
Although Regents acknowl
edged that many of the financial issues occurred before Gray-Little and Vitter, Regent Chairman Gary Sherrer and Regent Tim Emert were dissatisfied with, of all schools, a business school's mishandling of student funds.
Vitter and Gray-Little said they now know funds weren't accounted for and that the student advisory board should not have been dissolved back in 2006. Both Gray-Little and Vitter said they are looking to move forward.
The search is currently underway for a new dean for the school and the fourth candidate to visit campus was here this week.
"If you can't track where a dollar comes from and where it goes, then you don't have a good system," Sherrer said.
Sherrer said that kind of miscommunication sends a bad message to students.
Gray-Little said she has been working with Jeff Severin, director for the Center for Sustainability, and student leaders to further develop strategies to reduce waste on campus and within the community.
at
In January, the University will join Kansas State University in a sustainability competition that will last until June.
This year, the University's website for energy-related issues was updated to highlight sustainable efforts in education, research, operations and campus life.
Reported:
Along with other state universities, Gray-Little presented to Regents the University's annual sustainability report.
Edited by Alex Tretbar
The University has more than 230 sustainability related-courses and various avenues are taken on campus to increase the University's efforts.
New scholarship program approved
Students with family ties to KU can apply for tuition discounts now that the program is in place.
Department adds doctoral program
The University now offers a Ph.D. in women, gender and sexuality studies.
READ MORE ON 3A
meant to help inform students
The website cost $3,500 to redesign and took 10 weeks. Michael Wade Smith commissioned the task force that put the website together. Senate hopes to allow students to more easily see what it is doing around campus.
Also, a preview of the game Jayhawks take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
INSIDE
Discus legacy is all in the family
Brian Bishop, senior discus thrower, is one of a long line of KU track and field athletes.
INDEX
Classifieds...2B
Crossword...4A
Cryptoquips...4A
Opinion...5A
Sports...1B
Sudoku...4A
WEATHER
SATURDAY
60 44
Partly Cloudy
SUNDAY
71 45
Partly Cloudy
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