What happens in the brain during orgasm? In 2011, New Jersey researchers provided a definitive answer with fMRI footage capturing sequential activation across brain regions.
This vivid result came from sex therapist Nan Wise, a 54-year-old volunteer who entered an fMRI scanner with electrodes on her skull.
Observers watched her brain shift from rest (red) to activation (yellow) during private self-stimulation, peaking in near-total illumination (white, maximum activity) at orgasm, then calming post-climax.
Professor Barry Komisaruk's team noted activation starting in genital sensory areas from stimulation, spreading to the limbic system (emotions, memory), then broadly to the brain's reward and pleasure centers. This mapped the complete female orgasm.
Komisaruk told the Wall Street Journal: "One of the most striking points [of this study] is that all the important parts of the brain activate during orgasm. It's a tapestry of sensations."
The research aimed to guide treatments for anorgasmia, or lack of pleasure, in women.
