For the first time, researchers have been able to pinpoint precisely where the representation of the clitoris in women’s brains is located.
The study, published this Monday (20) in the scientific journal JNeurosci, also shows that the area of the brain activated during clitoris stimulation is more extensive in women who have more sex.
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The research was carried out by stimulating the clitoris of 20 women during an MRI scan of their brains.
Does a larger area allow them to perceive sensations better? Is the size of that area causing you to have more sex or having frequent sex makes it grow? These are questions that are impossible to answer at the moment, researchers say.
However, this study may help to develop better treatments for people who have experienced sexual violence or who have sexual problems.
“The way in which the female genital organs are represented in the human somatosensory cortex is very little studied,” Christine Heim, a professor of medical psychology at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, co-author of the study, told AFP.
“And this lack of knowledge has impeded research into standard sexual behaviors and pathological conditions,” he added.
– Body map –
When a part of the body is affected, neuronal activity in the somatosensory cortex is activated. And each part of the body corresponds to a different area of the brain, forming a kind of body map.
However, until now, the precise location of the female genitalia on this map has remained a matter of debate.
Previous studies had located it sometimes under the representation of the foot, sometimes near the hip. The reason: imprecise stimulation techniques (own or third-party) that caused simultaneous friction in other parts of the body, or triggered arousal, obscuring the results.
In 2005, using a technique that mimicked a highly localized tactile sensation, researchers were able to determine the precise location of the representation of male genitalia in the brain. But this had not yet been done to women.
For this, 20 healthy women aged between 18 and 45 years were selected.
For stimulation, a small round object designed specifically for the study was applied, placed in the lingerie at the height of the clitoris: thanks to the air jets, a small membrane began to vibrate slightly.
The approach was intended to be “as comfortable as possible” for the participants, explains John-Dylan Haynes, co-author of the study.
Eight clitoral stimuli were performed, each lasting 10 seconds, interspersed with 10 seconds of rest, as well as eight stimuli on the back of the right hand for comparison.
The conclusion is that, for both women and men, the representation of the genitalia on the brain map is close to the representation of the hip.
However, the precise location varies for each woman within this area.
– Plasticity –
The researchers then studied whether this area exhibited different characteristics based on sexual activity.
The 20 women were asked about the frequency of sexual intercourse in the last year, as well as since the beginning of their sexual lives.
Then, for each of them, the researchers determined the ten points most activated in the brain during stimulation and measured the area obtained.
“We found a link between the thickness of the genital region and the frequency of sexual intercourse,” especially in the last 12 months, explains Heim.
“The more sex, the bigger the zone.”
Brain plasticity is well known: parts of the brain develop as a function is used. But, for the moment, a causal link cannot be established directly.
The study also did not determine whether a larger area resulted in better perception.
But Heim, in a study published in 2013, showed that people who experienced traumatic sexual violence had a reduced genital area.
“At the time, we hypothesized that this could be the brain’s response to limiting the harmful effect of abuse,” he explained, adding that more studies would be needed to verify this.
In the future, the goal is to develop ways to help patients. The researcher wants to study whether certain sexual disorders are related to changes in the genital region.
So perhaps therapies aimed at “training” this area could be considered.
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