Abstract

We present herein an exploratory essay on sexual pleasure, in support of the objective of developing an evidence base of knowledge for the WAS Declaration of Sexual Rights. We have attempted to account for the feeling of erotic sexual pleasure, in terms of what is known about neuronal function. The brain regions that are activated during women’s orgasm, and their perceptual and physiological roles, are compared with brain regions related to chemically induced euphoria and craving. The brain regions that are activated at orgasm match those that are activated by both euphoria and craving. Based on these findings, we propose that erotic, sensual feeling is a simultaneous activation of euphoria plus craving. The importance of sensory stimulation, proprioception, sensations, and feelings is emphasized by evidence that their disruption leads to pathologies. The process of buildup of excitation to a peak and then resolution is proposed as a basic “orgasmic” property of the nervous system shared by multiple systems, as in a sneeze, which we consider to be a non-genital orgasm. We postulate a process by which an excitation pattern feels pleasurable and – at higher intensity – euphoric, if it is congruent with an unconscious dynamic “template,” but aversive and at higher intensity painful, to the extent that it is incongruent with the template. Under this formulation, peak neuronal excitation that is congruent with the unconscious, simultaneously “getting what is craved,” generates orgasmic, erotic, sexual pleasure.

 抽象的

我们在此提出一篇关于性快感的探索性文章，以支持为《WAS 性权利宣言》开发知识证据基础的目标。我们试图根据已知的神经元功能来解释性快感的感觉。将女性性高潮期间激活的大脑区域及其感知和生理作用与与化学诱导的欣快感和渴望相关的大脑区域进行比较。性高潮时激活的大脑区域与欣快感和渴望时激活的大脑区域相匹配。基于这些发现，我们提出色情、感性的感觉是欣快感和渴望的同时激活。有证据表明，感觉刺激、本体感觉、感觉和感觉的破坏会导致病理，这些证据强调了它们的重要性。兴奋积累到峰值然后消退的过程被认为是多个系统共享的神经系统的基本“性高潮”特性，就像打喷嚏一样，我们认为这是一种非生殖器性高潮。我们假设一个过程，在这个过程中，如果兴奋模式与无意识的动态“模板”一致，则兴奋模式会感到愉快，并且在较高强度下会感到欣快，但在与模板不一致的情况下，会感到厌恶和在较高强度下感到痛苦。在这个表述下，与无意识一致的峰值神经元兴奋，同时“得到渴望的东西”，产生性高潮、色情、性快感。