Genital stimulation

Brain

When sexual stimulation is perceived, there are systems in the brain that receive the stimuli and respond to it. During physiological sexual arousal, the autonomic nervous system responds to signals from central nervous system and prepares the body for sexual activity. The autonomic nervous system engages the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems, which are responsible for blood flow to genital and erectile tissues, and to muscles that participate in sexual responses. This results in responses like increased breathing rate, heart rate, and pupil dilation. The limbic system also plays a part in how sexual stimuli are received. A study done about pleasure and brain activity in men showed that electrical stimulation of the limbic system is highly pleasurable, and can sometimes generate orgasmic responses. During genital stimulation different areas of the brain are activated in men and women. For men, a study saw that genital stimulation caused part of the cerebral cortex and the insula, which is a part of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, to activate. For women, during clitoral stimulation parts of the secondary somatosensory cortex were activated. In both men and women the amygdala was deactivated.