Brain Areas Shut Off During Female Orgasm

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - 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.

In the study, Holstege and his colleagues at Groningen University recruited 11 men, 13 women and their partners.

The volunteers were injected with a dye that shows changes in brain function on a scan. For men, the scanner tracked activity at rest, during erection, during manual stimulation by their partner and during ejaculation brought on by the partner's hand.

For women, the scanner measured brain activity at rest, while they faked an orgasm, while their partners stimulated their clitoris and while they experienced orgasm.

Holstege said he had trouble getting reliable results from the study on men because the scanner needs activities lasting at least two minutes and the men's climaxes didn't last that long. However, the scans did show activation of reward centers in the brain for men, but not for women.

Holstege said his results on women were more clear.

When women faked orgasm, the cortex, the part of the brain governing conscious action, lit up. It was not activated during a genuine orgasm.

Even the body movements made during a real orgasm were unconscious, Holstege said.

The most striking results were seen in the parts of the brain that shut down, or deactivated. Deactivation was visible in the amygdala, a part of the brain thought to be involved in the neurobiology of fear and anxiety.

"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.

Donald Pfaff, professor of neurobiology and behavior at Rockefeller University in New York, said the interpretations were reasonable. "It makes poetic sense," said Pfaff, who was not connected with the research.

On the Net: European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
http://www.eshre.com
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My New career, TESTER!

Long Live Michael Jackson

Well Im glad he got off.. Not only did I make some money, yes i did bet that he'd get aquitted.. I mean shit, he made Thriller, Bad, Beatit, need I go on. I mean why would they send MJ to jail anyway.. He is NOT a threat to society.. He wasnt pickin up kids from the amusement parks talkin bout "Hey kid want some candy?" THose kids mothers willingly let their kids go over there.. One money hungry moms decides to press charges and look at what she dont got started.. Same for the bith who planted the finger in the Wendy's chili.. Both of them should be put away.. They are your real threat to society.

Let's hope MJ can get past this and make another great album.. So he can remind those non-believers of how awesome he really is..

PS. If you wore a Thriller or Beat It jacket at all in your life.. you should say a small prayer for MJ that he will still be able to continue and not crack like Dave Chapelle..

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Jackson's jury explains decision
Jurors' reaction
The jury in Michael Jackson's child abuse trial said there was simply "not enough" evidence for a guilty verdict.
"We had a closet full of evidence that always came back to the same thing - it was not enough," one female juror said.

The eight women and four men talked to reporters after they found Jackson not guilty on all 10 charges.

Jurors found Janet Arvizo, the mother of teenage accuser Gavin Arvizo, "intimidating" as she snapped her fingers at them while giving evidence.

'Not as celebrity'

Speaking at Santa Barbara Superior Court, California, after a court gag order was lifted, the jurors - aged between 20 and 79 - were identified only by numbers.

They said they treated singer Michael Jackson as they would any other defendant during more than 30 hours of deliberations.

"One of the first things we decided was that we had to look at him like any other individual, not as a celebrity," said the jury foreman.

"And once we got that established, we could go beyond that and we were able to deal with it just as fairly as we could with anybody else."

A female juror said members of the jury "came in with our personal beliefs, and some of those did differ".

"But we spent a lot of time really seriously studying the evidence and looking at the testimony and the jury instructions, and obviously came to an agreement."

No one piece of evidence stood out above any others, a female juror said, as they considered all the evidence "important".

One male juror said prosecutors had failed to convince them during the three-month trial.

'Expected better evidence'

"In a case like this you are waiting for a smoking gun, something you can grab onto," said a male juror. "In this case we had trouble finding that."

A female juror added: "We expected better evidence, it just wasn't there."

A female jury member who had children said she was disturbed by Janet Arvizo's testimony that she allowed her teenage son to share a bed with Jackson.

"Every moment of your day, you're protective over what happens to your children," the juror said.

"What mother in her right mind would allow that to happen? Or just freely volunteer your child, you know, to sleep with someone. And not just so much Michael Jackson, but any person, for that matter."

When asked whether they considered the Arvizo family to be "scam artists who were trying to frame Michael Jackson", one female juror replied: "That thought was there several times."

'Don't snap your fingers'

Another female juror "disliked it intensely" when Mrs Arvizo addressed the jury while giving evidence.

"I thought 'don't snap your fingers at me, lady!'" she said.

We took this as seriously as anyone does anything in their life

Female juror
An elderly juror said: "She did not take her eyes off us. That was very intimidating."

When asked who they regarded as "credible" witnesses, jurors only named ex-Neverland housekeeper Kiki Fournier.

They said their court duty, which for some jurors had lasted up to six months, had been physically and mentally demanding.

"It has not been easy," one male juror said. "I would get three to four hours of sleep a night, then wake up and it was on my mind. My wife says I do not smile any more."

A female juror concluded: "My hope is that the world has confidence in us because we took this as seriously as anyone does anything in their life."

DPGC foo!!!!

Snoop Dogg, Daz and Kurupt, Tha Dogg Pound, Reunite
Snoop Dogg told The Source exclusively that he wants to put beefs behind him for the interest of Hip-Hop and for the West Coast overall.

Snoop's music career recently hit a high point with a number 1 single entitled, "Drop It Like It's Hot." He also became one of Hip-Hop's most bankable on-screen presences.

But with great power comes responsibility. The Doggfather was concentrating on ways to help bring order to his own home on the West Coast and to his lingering beefs with the Dogg Pound Gangstas.

Kurupt says, "There was a lot of people involved in all of us getting back together, from the street angle and the industry angle. But it was really about us ourselves coming up with an agreement. Cause when we got back together, everything flowed so cool." Daz adds, "I hooked up with Kurupt and I let him and Snoop talk. Then I came back in town and we went right to the studio and it was just like it never changed."