[Moderators: If this post is too explicit, delete.]
~50% of Oxygen rerouted from cerebral cortex to limbic
Groaning and Hyperventilation during Sex Neurotic Physiology
"However, here the authors hypothesize that hyperventilation may produce increased sexual response in ourselves. What’s the purpose of this? Well, sex is supposed to be fun, if it weren’t, you wouldn’t do it, and then the species would die out. So presumably physiological responses that increase our enjoyment of sex would make us more likely to do it again. Additionally, our physiological responses are designed so that we can’t stop halfway. So a decrease in cortical blood flow from hyperventilating would stop us thinking very clearly, and thus keep us doin’ what we’re doin’.
To help us with this, it appears that blood flow is down in the cortex, but not so much in the limbic ("reptilian" lower processing) regions. An fMRI study of hyperventilation has shown that blood flow is decreased by as much as 50%, but that this decrease is largely confined to the neocortex (the frontal lobes, etc, involved in higher processing), while not occuring so much in the limbic regions. The limbin regions are the areas responsible for our basic drives, one of which is obviously sex. So a decrease in blood flow to the cerebrum would stop you thinking that maybe this isn’t such a good idea, while still getting blood flow to the limbic areas would keep you thinking that this is DEFINITELY a good idea."
~50% of Oxygen rerouted from cerebral cortex to limbic
Groaning and Hyperventilation during Sex Neurotic Physiology
"However, here the authors hypothesize that hyperventilation may produce increased sexual response in ourselves. What’s the purpose of this? Well, sex is supposed to be fun, if it weren’t, you wouldn’t do it, and then the species would die out. So presumably physiological responses that increase our enjoyment of sex would make us more likely to do it again. Additionally, our physiological responses are designed so that we can’t stop halfway. So a decrease in cortical blood flow from hyperventilating would stop us thinking very clearly, and thus keep us doin’ what we’re doin’.
To help us with this, it appears that blood flow is down in the cortex, but not so much in the limbic ("reptilian" lower processing) regions. An fMRI study of hyperventilation has shown that blood flow is decreased by as much as 50%, but that this decrease is largely confined to the neocortex (the frontal lobes, etc, involved in higher processing), while not occuring so much in the limbic regions. The limbin regions are the areas responsible for our basic drives, one of which is obviously sex. So a decrease in blood flow to the cerebrum would stop you thinking that maybe this isn’t such a good idea, while still getting blood flow to the limbic areas would keep you thinking that this is DEFINITELY a good idea."
