The intensity builds to a crescendo, and just like a long-awaited sneeze, tension is released in an explosive rush. The heart rate doubles. In women, the uterus contracts rhythmically; in men, sperm-carrying semen is propelled out of the body.
And somehow, by mechanisms not yet understood, the brain perceives all this activity as a darn good feeling.
AS they seek to document and demystify one of life's great thrills, scientists have run across some real head-scratchers.
How, for example, can they explain the fact that some men and women who are paralyzed and numb below the waist are able to have orgasms?
How to explain the "orgasmic auras" that can descend at the onset of epileptic seizures -- sensations so pleasurable they prompt some patients to refuse antiseizure medication?
And how on Earth to explain the case of the amputee who felt his orgasms centered in that missing foot?
In an orgasm orchestra, the genitalia may be the instruments, but the central nervous system is the conductor.
Orgasms are difficult to define, let alone reverse-engineer. |
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